


Bitten

by PlsxTommyxPls



Series: Bitten [1]
Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Fluff, Humans vs Vampires, Humans vs. Werewolves, Hunted Vampires, Multi, Vampire!Thomas, Vampires, War, Werewolf!Newt, Werewolves, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-18 15:06:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14855069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlsxTommyxPls/pseuds/PlsxTommyxPls
Summary: When Thomas’s vampire tribe is attacked by a group of hunters he crosses over into a territorial werewolf pack line and is saved when a werewolf - who Thomas feels a strange connection to - named Newt bites him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Interspecies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937572) by [newtntommy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtntommy/pseuds/newtntommy). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas runs from the remains of his tribe after they are attacked by an unknown group of hunters, going over the werewolf territory line in the process.

The only thing registering in Thomas's brain is the heavy foot steps following close behind, his own gasping breath, and the thought echoing through his head: I am going to die. 

If Thomas was thinking rationally, he would have noticed that the footsteps behind him were slowly getting farther away as his supernatural speed kicked in, but panic and adrenaline rush was flowing so quickly through his veins that nothing was processing except his survival instinct. 

Thomas was breathing in quick and heavy bursts, but after he realizes he's no longer being followed, he slows down to a slow walk and tries to quiet his breathing. He knows that because he's a vampire and technically dead now that he doesn't have a heart beat that he doesn't really have to breathe, but it just feels weird if he doesn't. Like his body will still freak out if he doesn't get enough oxygen to his lungs. 

More awake now that he's gotten up and about, Thomas is surprised that he's not tired. He was only turned a couple months ago - he can still remember vividly the pain of being turned. He knows he always will - with vampire's perfect memory. 

Thomas shakes his head to push the memories to the back of his mind. 

He feels so light, without the heavy sweat humans produce when they exercise. Thomas pats down his shirt, still feeling the memory of what it used to feel like to be alive and human. He knows that if he still had a heartbeat and his sweat glands still functioned, he would be soaked. 

A distant yell echos from not that far away, and Thomas is reminded that he needs to get off of this territory.

Even though by now humans and Vampires have a pact to not hunt each other, Thomas knows that line runs thin, and if he crossed over into human territory without explicit permission before hand, he would be killed on site. 

As Thomas reluctantly breaks out into a jog, he sees the tall walls surrounding human territory begin to show themselves over the tree line and swerves right, heading towards wolf territory. 

In and out. 

In and out. 

In and out. Thomas breathing is as normal as it would have been if he weren't sprinting and were lying down in one of his hammocks with Aris and Teresa, chatting and giggling quietly so as to not attract attention from Alby. 

Thomas closes his eyes and pictures the scene, losing his sense of the now. He can almost smell fresh pig meat roasting over a fire, the cheerful noises of what became his second family, and the taste of animal blood bitter on his tongue; yet still more tasteful than any other human food. 

Human blood is always infinitely times better than animal blood - almost irresistible - but ever since WWIX and the distant peace between the species, vampires haven't hunted humans and vice versa. 

"Hey! I found one!" A younger voice shouted. Thomas jumped: the voice was only a couple meters away. Thomas started sprinting faster than before when he heard the hissing and cries of what was once his family. He distantly heard men and women shouting where he heard the little boy and the other vampire. 

Who was that? Did the hunters kill them? Was it Alby? Aris? Winston? It's only then that Thomas realizes that he may well be the last one of his clan. 

Thomas can feel the blood drain from his face and he gets dizzy from the strain. Stopping in place, Thomas goes over all the possibilities. Could they have gotten away if they ran fast enough? Thomas knows he was the fastest of them - that's why he was a runner - so could they have also gotten away even though they weren't as fast as Thomas? What happened to them if they were caught? Did the hunters kill them? Capture them? Experiment on them-

Thomas shakes his head violently. It won't do any good to think about that right now. First he needs to get away if he is going to find another vampire clan to get help from and see if there are any survivors or any way he could save his family; if they weren't killed...

Thomas almost heaves at the though and falls against a tree. He feels his eyes sting and remembers what it felt like to cry when he was human. Of course he can't cry anymore, but the thought makes it all the worse. Thomas holds in his breathe and shakes with the strain, knowing that if he makes noise while still being in vampire territory, he will be found by the hunters. 

Thomas sits down against the tree and clamps a hand over his forehead. What is he going to do? 

Thomas looks around the wood as if it holds all the answers he needs and noticed something strange. A couple meters ahead, it looks like there are completely different woods. The grass looks brighter and shorter, less tree's, brighter flowers but all variations of brown. It looks almost mystical. 

Thomas recognizes it to be werewolf territory: vampire's long since mortal enemy, yet Thomas feels no great sustain for them. He's only wary because Alby has always taught him not to trust, befriend, or even look at a werewolf. 

Thomas is taken back to when he was first taught about the world he now lives in by Alby, more curious about the werewolf's than any other only because Alby demanded he not go anywhere near them. 

They were under one of the larger tents, where vampires are taught all they need to survive; Thomas had stomped off on his own after Alby yelled at him for his curiosity. Thomas remembers sitting on the edge of the woods in their own little clearing - though little was not the right word - and he was listening to all the sounds, smelling all the smells, and getting so engrossed in the environment around him he almost didn't notice Alby until he was plopping down next to him.

"Sorry about that, Thomas," Alby had said quietly. It was always so peaceful none wanted to be so loud as to break that peace. "You know deep down that I only want to protect you. All of you."

Thomas had grumbled back then, but what he wouldn't do now to go back and say it's all right. "Still sucks to be trapped in here, though." 

Alby looked towards him and studied him for a minute and then looked away, standing up. "Well this is my home. And while I'm content here, I can't have you running around in werewolf territory and causing trouble for us. So if you want to go - then go." 

Thomas gapped up at Alby, not understanding what was just said. "...what?" Thomas squinted, confused. 

Alby tilted his head at Thomas with a knowing look. "You heard me, Thomas," if Thomas has been paying closer attention he would have seen the small smirk playing at the edge of Alby's mouth. 

Thomas looked back at the woods, confused. "I, uh," Thomas started. "I think I'll just stay here." Thomas nodded, still not quite understanding what was going on in Alby's head. 

Alby pursed his lips and nodded, satisfied. Like he already knew exactly what was going to come out of Thomas's mouth before it happened. 

Thomas looks back on that moment in reminiscence, but is pulled back to the present when a bird lands on his leg, tweeting loudly. He knows the bird doesn't know he is there - because of how still vampires can be - even though it is on his leg and Thomas takes the moment to look forward. 

Well he has to go somewhere. And the hunters won't go into werewolf territory without weapons designed to kill werewolf's. And it's not like they would know immediately that he's there - and he's not even attacking, just, testing the limits a bit. 

He stands of slowly and waves the bird off of his leg as it tweets in protest. Thomas glances along the strange territorial line and marvels at the physical difference of his own territory and the one in front of him. He bends down and feels his territory's grass and the others. His own is darker and long while the others is soft and short. Thomas hums in approval, even while the phrase "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" pops into his mind. 

Shrugging to himself, Thomas dips his toe into the other side like he were testing the waters. Half expecting explosions, screaming, and blaring alarms, Thomas peaks around when nothing happens. 

Thomas goggles a little at his ignorance; it's not like they would know that quickly - they might not know at all if he keeps to the territory line. But... to get away from the hunters he would have to go a little deeper into the woods - right? 

With a mischievous smirk on his face, Thomas veers a little to the left into the woods. 

Feeling childish, Thomas swings his arms and touches all he can. It's all new: the colors, the texture, the overall feeling of the woods. His laughter rings out - even though he knows he should be quiet. 

Why wouldn't Alby want to come here? It's beautiful...

A twig snaps nearby, and usually Thomas would think nothing of it, but it's either an animal, a werewolf, or a hunter. Thomas looks to where the snap came from and his stomach fills with dread; it came from the direction o his territory, so if he had to run, he would have to run deeper into wolf territory. He was being herded. 

If Thomas' heart still had a beat, he knows it would be beating out of his chest by now. His eyes scan the area until he comes across two glowing orbs. Squinting and looking closer he sees they are just two large eyes: wolf eyes. 

Thomas gasps, turning and fleeing in the opposite direction; not directly deeper into wolf territory but no closer to getting out of it. 

Thomas hears multiple howls bellow behind him and answering howls in the distance. The loud beating of their paws against the ground close behind - even with Thomas' vampiric speed. 

The forest that seemed beautiful moments before seemed to almost cave in on him to capture him and slow him down while the wolves tear through it with ease. 

Panicking, Thomas sees something like a trail into a small clearing, and unthinkingly sprints into it even faster before he fumbles over. He distinctly registers yelling - human yelling, not all of the werewolves are in their wolf form - but before he can do anything, he feels heavy weights clamber onto him with sharp claws digging into his shoulders. Crying out, Thomas tries to break away only to be hurt worse. 

Thomas' eyes sting, and again the memory of crying comes to him as he whimpers in the way only vampires can - the first time he's ever been glad that vampires can't cry. 

Everything is silent for moments other than the loud growling and harsh breathing of the couple of wolves around him. Thomas squeezes his eyes shut and remembers Alby, Teresa, Sonya, Aris, Winston, and all the other vampire born children he would help teach at times. 

He's so stuck in his memories he would have jumped in shock when he feels warm, calloused fingers grab his chin if he had the space to move. Thomas gasps and looks up in surprise to see gleaming red eyes glare back at him. Thomas would've shrunk back in recognition if the hard fingers hadn't been holding him in place; this was the Alpha. 

The alpha jerks Thomas' head to the side, up, and around, inspecting him for any sign of anything. Thomas goes against his deepest instinct to turn away and run so that he doesn't seem suspicious; it's his only chance of survival. 

Once the alpha is done with his inspection, he rips his fingers away as if Thomas had burned him. He tilts his nose up in disgust and wrinkles it as if Thomas smells bad. 

With one final look, the alpha spits out, "take him away."

And then black is all Thomas sees. 

—— ——

"Ah- w-what..." Thomas jerked awake after being splashed with cold water, yelling in surprise. He feels chains around his wrists and ankles, and another thing holding his chin up and back by his forehead. He is lying on a cold, hard, and lumpy platform, tied down, with a pack of werewolves yelling for his execution. Nice. 

Without being able to move his head, Thomas looks as far as he can with his eyes and sees a somewhat large crowd of what must be werewolves screaming out. Thomas feels a chill run through him - was this why Alby didn't want him to cross over? We're wolves really that savage as to kill anyone who crossed onto their land?

"Kill it!"

"Cut its throat!"

"Spill it's blood!"

Thomas hears many call out for ways to kill him and which should be the best one. He jerks in his chains, already knowing he won't be able to escape with how little blood he's drank the past few days. 

"No - please - I didn't do anything!" Thomas screams. "I didn't know! I didn't-"

A hand clamps over Thomas' chin and shoved up so that his mouth is shut without risk of touching his fangs. Thomas hisses in frustration. Why won't they just listen-

"Shut up, corpse," Thomas hears the same voice from earlier - the alpha? "One more word out of you and I'll just kill you straight."

Thomas looks up at the alpha with wide eyes, taking in his appearance. He had brown skin tanned from days in the sun and strangely wore clothes that looked similar to hunters clothes; even though he was clearly the wolf pack alpha. When the alphas eyes met Thomas', they flashed red in anger and Thomas quickly looked away. 

The alpha growled before looking up to the crowd. "So- what do you say? An sword?" A cheer went up with some boo's. "Hmm... an gun?" This tome more boo's than cheers. "Alright... a axe?" This time all cheers, and Thomas' whimpering grew louder and louder. 

A large man with thin extreme eyebrows came and stood next to Thomas, facing the crowd and lifted the axe that Thomas knew would be the tool to end his life. By this point Thomas stopped struggling, knowing that it would be the end. 

The glint of the axe shone in his eye as the man rose it to end his life, and he looks away, catching the eye of another wolf. 

Thomas gasps in surprise, feeling something like a zing go through him as he looks into two deep brown irises contrasted with the softest blonde. Thomas wishes he could get up and brush the hair out of the wolf's eyes, and is thankful for this one peaceful thought before he dies. 

But when the axe is brought down and Thomas closes his eyes, readying himself for the impact, something happens. There's a new weight on his body, as if someone were on top of him. Thomas opens his eyes, and sees the deep brown eyes from before for a slip second before they are gone and a sharp pain happens in his neck. 

Thomas cries out, like a needle were unexpectedly stuck into his skin before the real pain starts. It's agonizing as if he's changing and spreading, all through his neck and through his body, it's everywhere and it can't get out. Thomas screams and flings himself against the chains, trying to scratch at the burning pain in his neck. 

But then cool hands land themselves on his neck, soothing the burn. Thomas sighs, and blacks out to the image of werewolves gaping down at him, with the boy with blonde hair and brown eyes looking down at him as if Thomas was the catalyst for the end of his world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Thomas is unconscious, he recalls a memory of him and his sister; Thomas meets Gally, Brenda, and Minho.

_“Tom, no!"_

_A thin body tackles Thomas to the side, nocking him away from the boundary line between the werewolf territory and the vampire territory._

_Thomas shrieks in surprise and fights to break himself free of the thin wiry arms wrapped around him. He hisses in warning and can feel his vision sharpen and darken as his eyes turn black. It's something new to get used to, but only happens when a vampire feels threatened or is hunting._

_"Tom- just- calm down!" Thomas' sister screams at him from behind_.

_"I'll calm down when you let go of me, corpse!" Thomas seethes out. Yes, he does love his sister but she can be really, really annoying. Honestly, it's not like he was going to cross over into werewolf territory!_

_His sister gasps in offense and shoves his head into the ground as she backs away. Spitting dirt out of his mouth, Thomas sits up and crosses his arms like a child._

_"Oh stop pouting, you lunatic," Teresa says to Thomas, shaking her head. "And_ _we're the same species - twins, even! It's like insulting yourself when you insult me!"_

_Thomas grumbles and looks away, back towards the werewolf boundary line._

_Thomas has been interested in werewolves - or more specifically, the werewolf pack that lives in a cold peace next to them - and has always loved just sitting a couple trees away from the boundary line that separates the territories. The difference between the two places is so sudden and beautiful it's enchanting and trance-like just to look at it. It's almost as if Thomas is lookin through a portal that contexts two completely different worlds_.

_Thomas hears Teresa sigh deeply and drop herself down next to him with a heavy plop. He almost feels bad for her, before he remembers she unceremoniously tackled him without precaution._

_He feels her long fingers settle on his head and massages him the way their father used to before he disappeared along with their brother. For anyone else with a painful reminder of a lost past, they would have winced and turned away. But Thomas knew Teresa was only tryin to help make him feel better and leaned into her touch_.

_"Listen, Tom," Teresa started quietly. "I'm sorry about that but- you have to know when enough is enough."_

_Thomas knows it to be true - he has snuck away from school everyday, skipping vital lessons that he might one day need, just to sit here in peace and watch the woods_.

_Thomas finally glanced away from the woods and into Teresa's eyes. He takes her hand off of his head and holds it, massaging it the way their mother massages patients who are beyond saving and need comfort before they die. It's like his and Teresa's own little language no one else can speak._

_Thomas shakes his head. "I'm sorry too," he starts reluctantly. "I was getting a little close there that time."_

_Teresa nods in understanding. She puts er head on his shoulder and they both sit there for minutes, maybe hours, watching the boundary line._

_"I just-" Thomas doesn't quite know how to put into words what he's trying to communicate. Teresa glances up at him. "I've always felt some sort of connection here. Like-"_

_"-like somethings waiting for you to just, cross over the line and say: here I am," Teresa finishes. "Come find me."_

_Thomas looks at his sister in surprise. Yes - that's exactly how he feels. Though Thomas knows he shouldn't be surprised; he and his sister have too much in common for him to be surprised._

_Teresa looks at the werewolf territory with a yearning sort of look in her eyes, and Thomas remembers the first couple months they became vampires, when Teresa would sneak away from school and disappear for hours. It never once occurred to Thomas where she might be going until now._

_Teresa looks to Thomas with a burning something in her eyes. "But you cant let that urge rule you Thomas. That's just the lure of the wolves - that's how they get you, Thomas."_

_Teresa grabs at his hand and Thomas jumps. He hasn't ever seen his sister like this; with this burning look in her eyes. Except the night when-_

_"Promise me, Tom," Teresa looks Thomas straight in the eyes intensely. "Promise me you won't give in - you won't go to them!"_

_Suspicious and confused, Thomas whispers, "I promise."_

_Teresa purses her lips and nods, standing up._

_"Well then. I guess it's time to go back," Teresa holds out her hand to a still sitting Thomas. Thomas takes her hand and they both walk back to their clan, neither one looking back once_.

 

                      — Present —

 

"Ah!" Thomas wakes up with a scream, jerking against chains. He can hear the noise of the rattling echoing through dank and humid hallways.

Thomas sits up and pulls on the chain around his ankle, shrugging. At least there aren't chains on his arms too.

He sits up and drags himself tiredly and sourly over to the bars of the cell he's in. His neck aches when he moves and he winces, rubbing the spot where it hurts the most; right under his jaw near his pulse. Thomas' eyes widen, remember jut why he blacked out yesterday. Did a werewolf bite him? Was it trying to eat him - is that why Alby hates werewolves? But if the werewolf were trying to eat him, why would he be here and alive? Maybe they're going to fatten him up...

Shaking his head, Thomas looks around, seeing no light and no source of light. No torches, no sunlight, no nothing. But in a dark shadow near the edge of his cell, Thomas sees what looks like a large figure, hunching over in the dark. Thomas feels a spike of fear and trepidation.

"H... hello?" Thomas tries to keep his voice from wobbling - Alby taught him that if he cowers, the werewolves will take that as a sign of weakness and look at him as their pray. He can't have that. "Who's there?"

The figure snorts unattractive, leans over towards Thomas and pulls on a cord that switches on a series of dangling lightbulbs. The lycanthrope leans forward into the day of light and Thomas freezes in recognition. This was the werewolf who was going to kill him.

"Day one, greenie," the werewolf says. "Rise and shine."

Thomas almost hisses at the werewolf. What was he, mocking him? The werewolf laughs again at the look on Thomas' face.

"No reason to be mad, greenie," the werewolf chuckles. Thomas hisses and the werewolf growled in return.

"Not real friendly, are you?" The werewolf tilts his head, analyzing Thomas. Thomas almost snorts sarcastically. Friendly? Why would he be friendly?

"Do you really expect me to be friendly when I was kidnapped, bitten, and thrown in a jail cell?" Thomas retorts. Friendly his ass.

The werewolf growls dangerously. "You were the one who attacked us and trespassed on our territory. You should be thankful we didn't kill you," by now the werewolf was crouched over in hunting position and Thomas didn't even think before he hissed back.

"Well I would rather be dead than stuck with a bunch of dogs!"

The werewolf screamed at him and launched itself against the bars and Thomas hunched over with fangs fully out, hissing.

Then the werewolf is ripped away by a different pair of arms and a girls voice rings out sarcastically.

"Girls, girls. Your both pretty," the voice drawls. "Now pick up your asses and calm the shuck down."

The arms surrounding the werewolf let go, revealing an Asian male, who pointedly looked at the werewolf with the extreme eyebrows.

"Down, Gally. Uncle Minho and auntie Brenda've got this covered," the Asian - Minho? - said. 'Gally' huffs in annoyance and brushes Minho off his shoulder, storming out of the dank jail way. Minho chuckles fondly, like Gally was an immature toddler and not a dangerous werewolf who would have torn Thomas to shreds if he hadn't stepped in.

Minho turns to Thomas, walking closer and Thomas hisses in warning, unsure of what was going on.

Minho puts his hands up in surrender and backs up a step. "Down boy," he says and Brenda laughs as if it were some inside joke.

Thomas scrunches up his face and says, "Don't treat me like an animal." He knows hissing is probably a little bit out of hand but what's he supposed to do? He has every reason to feel threatened.

Minho and Brenda roll their eyes in synch, as if they deal with stuff like this all the time. They just might. "Then don't act like one, shank," Minho declares.

Thomas tilts his head. Shank?

"What's that?" Thomas asks.

Brenda lifts a carefully carved brow. "What?" She asks. "A shank?" Thomas nods a bit and the girl hums.

"It's just a term we call all the annoying newbies," she says as she plops down into the seat Gally sat in before he flung himself against the bars.

Thomas perks at the word 'newbie'. "Newbie? But I'm not a newbie - I'm a prisoner," Thomas almost whines. Wouldn't he have to live there to be a 'newbie' at all?

Brenda rolls her eyes at Thomas' antics and Thomas could feel the annoyance building quickly.

"What, you don't think we'll just let you go after what happened with Newt, do you?" Brenda looks at Thomas unamused and the questions only pile up on top of one another. Newt? Who is that? What happened - and what would that have to do with him? Why wouldn't they let him go?

With so many things on the edge of his tongue, Thomas could only get out an unintelligent, "...wha-?"

Minho laughs obnoxiously and Brenda slaps his shoulder with a smirk on her face. Thomas can feel his ears and cheeks burn red.

Minho gains back his normal breathing with a final slap to the knee and says with an amused lily to his voice, "it's alright, shank. We're just messing with you." Brenda nods in reassurance - which doesn't do much for Thomas.

Minho squats down and drops on the floor gracelessly pulling out a deck of cards.

"Alright, shank," Minho starts expectedly. "You ever played Taboo?"

Thomas squints his eyes in suspicion. Taboo? What - were they also witches? Is that even possible?

Brenda snorts indelicately. "It's a game, dork. We're not gonna cast a spell on you," she wiggles her fingers and makes her voice into a mocking tone, laughing when she sees another look of embarrassment on Thomas' face.

"You easy to embarrass aren't you?" Brenda tilts her head, inspecting him. Then she snaps up quickly, making Thomas and Minho jump. "Wait! We don't even know your name, shank!"

Thomas looks at his ripped up shoes. It wouldn't be smart to tell them his name. They might be able to trace it back to his clan - or, what was left of it...

"I'm, uh... my names Alby." Idiot! Why would you say that?! Thomas can almost hear his sister's voice yelling at him. Ah - his voice of reason is his loud, screeching older sister.

Minho looks at his unamused. "Did you never learn that werewolves can smell it when your lying?"

Thomas winces at the reminder. And if they couldn't trace his name to his old clan before, they could now. What's the point of lying anyway if they could smell it?

"Thomas," he grumbles.

Minho's eyes flash. "What was that?"

Thomas pouts. He knows they can hear him; werewolves have just as good hearing as vampires.

"Thomas," he grumbles quieter in before.

Minho and Brenda's eyes are practically laughing at him by now. "I'm sorry - could you say that a little louder please?" Brenda says this time.

Thomas flares up at them through his eyelashes. "T-h-o-m-a-s," he spells out slow and clear. "Thomas."

Brenda bursts out in laughter, Minho following soon after and Thomas can practically feel his stomach boiling. And no- that's not a smile tugging at his mouth.

"All right did you two come down here to do anything or did you just want to annoy me to death?" Thomas snaps, even though it's a little softened. All right, a lot softened. He any help it if these two treated him just like Aris and Sonya did.

"Okay, okay, okay," Minho gets out trough his high. "We're good, we're good." The Asian pulls out a stack of cards and a stop watch.

"So this game is called taboo," Minho starts, setting the adds up in a line so that Thomas, Brenda, and Minho can't see their contents. "I pick a random card, and try to either act it out or tell you what it is without using the taboo words; which are the words written on the card."

Thomas nods along as Minho describes it. Might as well have something to do down here other than just rot, right?

"Alrighty then, shanks," Minho stands up and picks up a card. He pulls his mouth in a grimace and puts the card back down. "Better not to that one," he says, teeth clenched.

"What was it?" Thomas asks, curiosity burning as bright as usual.

"Corpse," Minho says perkily and unabashedly, all the while looking at Thomas with trepidation in his eyes. Thomas shrugs, having called his sister the derogatory term multiple times and vice versa.

Minho looks slightly surprised, but all the less shrugs and picks another card. Brenda 'ooh's over his shoulder and Minho's eyes brighten with excitement.

He gets up and starts the stop watch for five minutes, immediately jumping into action.

Thomas could have laughed at the way Minho looked then: stomping wildly and swinging an arm ahead of them.

Minho talks so quick Thomas wouldn't have been able to keep up if he were human. "So they're these big and extinct mega-mammals who-"

"A-ah!" Brenda screams and points at Minho with a strong finger. Thomas jumps in surprise.

"What, woman?" Minho tells equally as loud back. Thomas stares at them in offense. No one was ever this loud back at the clan. It was so quiet and peaceful no one could break it if they wanted to - which they didn't.

Brenda groans dramatically, dropping her shoulders. "You literally just said, like, half of the taboo words!"

Minho sassily gasps, snatching the card from Brenda's hand. "I did not!" He yells. Thomas glances between the two carefully. Is this normal? "I only said three: big, extinct, and mega-mammals-"

Brenda looks at Minho sideways with wide eyes. "Yea! And there's eight!"

Minho squints his eyes at Brenda. "Woman, if you honestly think half of eight is three you skipped one day of school to many-"

"Okay practically half-"

"Oh, practically-"

"Yea! If you just round it!"

"Guys!" Thomas finally shouts. Both Minho and Brenda stop playfully shouting and looks to Thomas, who is covering his ears in annoyance.

Minho looks to Brenda quickly, then back to Thomas. "So you did get that it was a mammoth right-"

"Minho!" Brenda yells, drawling out the o. She slaps Minho's shoulder, cackling in her seat. Minho joins in unabashedly and Thomas feels a small smile grace his face; who can't help but feel as if he could get used to this.

Brenda must have noticed the distant fondness on Thomas' face by that point, after she had come over her cackling, and pointed at him in the face.

"Aww look, Min," she says as if she was talking about a cute little puppy she just found. Ironic, Thomas thinks, mentally rolling his eyes. "Tommy's getting used to our annoying antics!"

Thomas blushes. No one has called him Tommy since he was six years old - he hasn't let them. "Don't call me that."

Minho squints at him. "What - Tommy?" Thomas gives Minho a flat glare. "Awww Brie, it looks like we better take it up a notch!"

Brenda glances fondly at Minho - which surprises Thomas; it's one of the first relatively calm faces she's made since she stepped into Thomas's view. Thomas almost smirks wickedly. He sees where this is going.

Thomas tilts his head up at Minho. "I don't think that's such a good idea, 'Min'," Thomas mocks. Minho squints right back at Thomas, growling playfully. "Oh yea, shank? And why's that?"

Thomas smirks at the two werewolves sitting outside his cell. "Because then I would just have to bring up this seemingly unspoken thing and make it un-unspoken by speaking about it," Thomas says innocently, giving pointed looks to Minho and Brenda. "Now isn't that right, Brie?"

Brenda turns a dark shade of red while Minho scowls off to the side, and for the first time ever, Thomas thanks whoever is listening that he wasn't oblivious just this once.

"Welp, you got me shank," Minho glumly says, slapping his knee. "I promise I won't call you Tommy for two weeks, but then your gonna have to prove yourself again."

Thomas laughs and Brenda gives a little huff, still quite red in the face, which Thomas notices happily.

"Little bit easy to embarrass, aren't you, Brie?" Thomas coos, echoing Brenda's words from earlier. Brenda gives him a halfhearted glare and mocking 'ha ha' before standing up and pushing the rusty chair behind her.

"I'm gonna go gossip with Fry - he's more fun than both of you put together times four." And with that walks away.

"Bye, Brie," Minho shouts after her as her footsteps echo through the dank hallway.

"See ya, Shanks," her voice replies, making Minho smile fondly. Thomas almost smiles at the sight - he sometimes wishes he had something like that, but then remembers that he has all he needs.

"Look what you did, greenie," Minho jokingly gestured in the vicinity where Thomas last saw Brenda as he pulls out a different stack of cards. Thomas wonders how many he's got on there. "You know how to play uno?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas is introduced to more werewolves than he ever hoped to meet at once.

Thomas wakes up to the noise of a door closing quietly and the wonderful smell of earth and what sunlight must smell like it it had a smell. Thomas basks in it with eyes closed and feeling warmth just from the smell, even though he knows his body is trapped in a dank and musky jail cell with no light other than that of dusty, old lightbulbs. When losing himself in the smell he can almost taste the vanilla, the flowers and fertilizer. The warmth, softness, the feel of home. If Thomas could fall in love with any smell, he knows that to be the one he loves most. 

Thomas almost falls back asleep when he is surprised back into consciousness by the slamming of the heavy jail door that leads to the stairs down to the jail cells Thomas knows he is in. Thomas sits up on the floor and awaits whoever it is. Maybe it's Minho coming with more cards. Maybe he's brought Brenda with him again. It has been a couple days - maybe she isn't mad at him anymore. Maybe it's even this Newt Thomas hears so much about-

But once the figure turns round the corner Thomas can feel his stomach and mood drop considerably farther than the ground beneath him. It was the first werewolf face he woke up to; Gally, if Thomas remembers correctly. Thomas grumbles, already knowing today was going to be a stressful one. 

Thomas hears Gally slowly walk over to the rusty chair Minho always sits in and the awkward scrap of the chair as it is pulled closer to Thomas's cell as the ground protests the movement. The chair creaks when the large lycanthrope slowly places himself on the smaller chair. The air is stiff and awkward, more so than it usually would be for Thomas and his captors. 

Gally clears his throat, break in the silence, and Thomas glances at Gally out o the corner of his eye. The poor wolf looks more awkward than Thomas feels, and Thomas decides to give Gally a little bit of mercy. Thomas turns toward Gally, knowing he has something to say. 

"Well-" Gally starts, clearing his throat again. "Sorry about the other day, greenie." 

Thomas can tell he's not one for apologies, but can see the effort, and nods appreciatively. Gally notices this and they both decide to accept that this is the most they are getting from each other for a while; reluctant allies at most. 

Nodding firmly, Gally stands back up. Thomas isn't really surprised; Brenda or someone must have put Gally up to coming down here and apologizing for Thomas's literal worst first impression ever. Now having done what he came to do, he must now be making his leave. 

But then Gally - surprising Thomas greatly - pulls out a chain of keys and unlocks the cell doors holding Thomas in. For a quick second, Thomas thinks Gally is going to beat him up when Gally grabs his ankle but feels silly when he feels the chain go lose. Thomas runs at his sore ankle with a dropped jaw. Were they letting him go?

Gally must see the look of utter astonishment on his face and snorts. "Don't think we're letting you go greenie," Gally says as if he were reading Thomas's mind. "I was just sent to pick you up for brunch. Might as well get used to it here cause you aren't leaving anytime soon - at least, not on Jorge's watch." 

Gally must not have meant for Thomas to hear the last part because he mumbles it so quietly, Thomas has to strain his ears to hear the words clearly. 

Thomas scowls; now there's some 'Jorge' that he needs to be worried about along with this 'Newt' guy. And why won't they just get on with why they are keeping him here? If they're going to eat Thomas, why not do it it now - he's just getting skinnier without any blood to drink or meat to eat. 

"Yea who is this Jorge anyways?" Thomas snarks. "And why does he want to keep me here? You gonna eat me?"

Gally snorts at that, so Thomas takes it far from the truth. Even though on the outside he acts like he doesn't care, a part of him just breathed a deep sigh of relief. 

"If we were going to eat you, we would've already, greenie," Gally says sarcastically, rolling his eyes. 

Thomas almost hisses at the nickname. "Don't call me greenie - I'm not one of you," Thomas growls out. He wasn't going to stay either - even if Minho and Brenda remind him of a home he doesn't have anymore. Maybe they could come with him when he escapes...

Gally gives Thomas a side glance, and Thomas swears he could see a bread look of pity. What was that about?

Gally gives him a rough pat on the shoulder, saying, "you are now kid - Newt saw to that." Thomas scoffs and brushes Gally's hand off of his shoulder. 

"And who's that?" Thomas is getting angry now. Why won't anyone tell him anything? "All I ever hear about is Newt Newt Newt!"

Gally turns on him and points a finger at him. "Oi! He saved your life back there!" Thomas takes a step back from Gally's sudden intrusion. "Without him you would've been dead meat!"

How? 

Gally looks at him intensely for a few seconds more before turning away and hauling open the door to the jail-like cells, letting sudden bright light flood Thomas's vision. Thomas squints and holds a hand over his eyes to help block out the bright sun. Gally turns on him with surprised eyes. 

"Thought vampires burned in sunlight," Gally muses to both himself and Thomas. 

Thomas rolls his eyes. "And yet you led me straight into the sunlight."

Gally chortles, giving Thomas's glowing skin a final once over before heading further into the light. "Still, you have to admit the glowing skin is a bit of a surprise - even for a werewolf." 

Thomas shrugs, used to the weird side effects of being undead by now. 

The pair settles into a silence as Gally leads Thomas somewhere - Thomas doesn't really have a choice in the matter; he knows they'll just take him by force if he doesn't come willingly - and Thomas takes the opportunity to assess his surroundings. 

They are in an open field of sorts that is surrounded by large and thin trees, with short grass and random homes  made with sticks, mud and a mixture of other substances. Thomas, from what he can see, sees that the only building made purely of mud and clay is the one they just stepped out of. There are clusters of smaller tent like shelters and a small grouping of larger tents. From what it looks like, Gally is leading Thomas to the biggest tent.   
      
Once there, Gally pulls a blanket thing aside and leads Thomas inside to see tables and chairs everywhere, each one seated by a werewolf, big and small, young and old. And all of them alive and loud. Thomas flinches at the volume change.   
      
Gally follows Thomas inside and pats him on the shoulder, leading him along the walls and away from the large gathering of lycanthropes. Thomas doesn't know how to feel.   
      
As Thomas is passing by, one of the closer werewolves takes a sniff, obviously smelling the elephant in the room, and Thomas winces. The werewolf's head snaps in his direction, seeing him immediately, gasping and leaning over to whisper to her friend. She points and the other werewolf looks equally as scandalized. The whispers move throughout the room like a wave, and by the time Thomas and Gally reach the wall with another door with a blanket covering over it, ever werewolf in the room is staring and Thomas's shoulders are hunched in embarrassment.   
      
These are the same werewolves who called for his death by axe not four days ago - at least, Thomas thinks it was four days. It's hard to tell in a pitch black dungeon.   
      
Gally pitifully pats Thomas on the shoulder and lifts the covering over the entrance for Thomas to go through. With a final glance at the room of suspicious and prying eyes, Thomas ducks under and enters the new doorway.   
      
Once Gally is in after Thomas and the covering closed over the entrance, Thomas looks around at the new environment. They are in a wide hallway, as if it was built knowing many people would be running through it, and it looks out of place so empty. Thomas remembers the room filled to the brim with werewolves and knows where they all are.   
      
Gally nudges Thomas forward to the end of the short hallway, where they come across a girl with long locks of dark hair and golden brown skin. Gally nods to her and she tilts her head questioningly at Thomas.   
      
"Harriet," Gally says in greeting. Harriet nods back at him.   
      
"Gally," the girls replied. "What's his business here? You know Jorge doesn't like visitors in the morning - he's always jumpy."   
      
So that's what they're doing - I'm meeting this Jorge guy.   
      
Gally shrugs. "Minho told me Jorge wanted to talk to him, you know, meet the shank without holding an axe to his neck."   
      
Thomas rolls his eyes. "If I'm not mistaken," Thomas drawls sarcastically. "It was you who was holding an axe to my neck."  
       
Gally shrugs. "Fair enough."  
      
Harriet laughs quietly. "I like 'em. Can we keep 'em?" Thomas scowls and Harriet smiles wider, stepping aside to let them pass into another entrance; this one with actual doors and not just a covering.   
      
Jorge must be their alpha, Thomas thinks.   
      
As Thomas and Gally pass Harriet, she whispers seriously, "Just piss him off, alright?"  
      
Thomas nods distractedly.   
      
Thomas then enters a much wider room with desks filled with papers and radios, with windows and shelves and other things that would seem completely normal. Its so much less werewolf-y than Thomas thought that he has to take a look around at the room for a couple seconds longer than he would admit.   
      
Thomas is so distracted by the room itself that he doesn't see the dark skinned man until heavy, strong hands clamps on his shoulders and Thomas jumps, surprised. He looks straight ahead to look at the man who must be the alpha of the werewolf pack, and is more surprised than before.   
      
The man is smiling wide at Thomas with friendly eyes, and the hands on his shoulders aren't there to hold Thomas in place, but is a friendly gesture.   
      
Jorge leans closer to Thomas playfully and whispers, "Welcome to the Glade."  
      
—

The Glade.   
      
That's the name of this big werewolf home, surrounded by trees. Thomas has always wondered what they called it, or if they just called it home, like Thomas's vampire clan did. Now that Thomas knows what their home's name is, he doesn't know how he should feel after a revelation like this, one that he's always had a burning curiosity for. He doesn't know how he should feel, but he feels relieved and rejuvenated. Like he's come back from something he's been away from for far too long. In a way, he has, the curiosity lit anew.   
      
After Jorge pulled back from Thomas, he pulled out a wooden chair for Thomas to sit in, picking up the papers and placing them on the only empty place on all of the shelves. Thomas watches him buzz about and can't help but think to himself, well, Harriet wasn't lying. He is jumpy in the morning.   
      
Jorge walks behind his filled desk and sits in the chair behind it, glancing once at Thomas as he fiddled with papers before saying, "Sit, hermano. Make yourself at home."  
      
Thomas holds back a helpless giggle and sits down in the chair, glancing back at Gally for leading, who is still standing at the entrance to the room. Gally nods to Thomas, and even though Thomas doesn't particularly like Gally, he's thankful for the reassurance.   
      
Thomas turns back to Jorge and finds Jorge completely still compared to how he was before, his full attention on Thomas.   
      
"So, hermano," Jorge starts seriously. Thomas could have gotten vertigo from how quickly the atmosphere changed. "Why do you think your here?"  
      
Thomas hesitated. "Here?" Thomas knows he looks and sounds  stupid but Jorge needs to be more specific.   
      
"Yes, here," Jorge says slowly. "In the Glade."  
      
Thomas gulps inaudibly.   
      
"Because I crossed the boundary line," Thomas wonders if they'll kill him depending on how he answers.   
      
Jorge minutely tilts his head. "Yes. And why did you do that?"  
      
Thomas doesn't answer, knowing because I was curious would sound stupid even if it was true and that these werewolves might attack his vampire clan to finish them off if he told them they were attacked by hunters.   
      
Jorge growls when he doesn't answer. "Were you trying to spy on us?" Jorge asks quietly. "Are you planning to attack our pack?"  
      
"No!" Thomas says quickly. This is going much worse than Thomas had previously hoped.   
      
"Then what were you doing on our territory?" Jorge stands up, placing his hands on the desk threateningly. Thomas's throat dries up.   
      
"Answer me!" Jorge shouts, and Thomas can heart Gally whisper his name, prompting him to answer.   
      
"Alright!" Thomas gives and sighs. "My clan was attacked by hunters - I had no one where to go-"  
      
"Jorge," Gally interrupts. Thomas looks back to Gally frantically. He doesn't want to die- "hunters," Gally echoes Thomas's words.   
      
Jorge nods gravely. "Continue," Jorge says quieter, sitting back down.   
      
Thomas breaths a sigh of relief.   
      
"There weren't many - at least, no more than we had in our clan - but they had really dangerous weapons," Thomas says, and quickly goes to explain. "I knew I could go to the human because it could start another nuclear war! The witch territory was too far, o knew I could stay on vampire territory-"  
      
Jorge holds up a hand for silence, and Thomas complies. Jorge runs his mouth with thinking eyes. "Tell me more about the weapons."  
      
Thomas shakes his head, trying I remember. "I don't know much, I was running as fast as I could to get out."  
      
Jorge leans closer, intently listening. "Try."  
      
Thomas closes his eyes and loses himself in his memories. At one point he saw a man holding a gun-like weapon to the side, shooting one of his friends. It shot out plasma bolts; not enough to kill a vampire, but enough to stun. Thomas remembers the vampire t shot dropping to the ground shaking like they were having a seizure. Looking closer into the memory, Thomas sees small letters engaged in the side of the weapon: WCKD.   
      
"Wicked," Thomas says. "W, C, K, D."  
      
Thomas hears Gally's small intake of breath at the word, and Thomas looks back to see Gally staring at Jorge in astonishment. He turns to Jorge, confused.   
      
"Who is WCKD?" Thomas asks, but gets no reply. Jorge is staring at his table, but then jerkily looks up at Thomas, a crazed, burning look in his eyes.   
      
"What were they wearing? We're there air crafts? Machines? Creatures?" Jorge asks quickly.   
      
Thomas shakes his head for each question. "They were silent, but it was just them and them alone. No aircrafts."  
      
Thomas closes his eyes and thinks again. "They were wearing ragged clothing that matched our environment. Jorge breaths a sigh on relief, but still looks very concerned.   
      
It's Gally who speaks next. "Jorge," he starts quietly. "Do you know what this means?"  
      
Jorge nods to himself. "WCKD is selling their weapons." Jorge turns back to Thomas and says, "did you see anything else about the weapons?"  
      
Thomas nods, saying, "yes, they shot plasma, just enough to stun us but not enough to kill us."  
      
Thomas can see Gally go pale from the corner of his eye. "That means they're capturing us," Gally mutters and Jorge nods, looking concerned for Gally.   
      
Jorge purses his lips. "Gally, why don't you take Thomas to the Homestead," Jorge says to Gally, his voice back to the serious and firm voice it was before, but with fond concern in it.   
      
Gally nods and Thomas stands dizzily to follow him; he really needs something to eat.   
      
—

Once Gally and Thomas are out of the hallway leading to the cafeteria of sorts, Thomas is spotted by Minho and Brenda.   
      
"Hey buddy!" Minho says lousy over the chatter of the room, clapping Thomas on the shoulder.  "Nice to see you out of a smelly cage!"   
      
Brenda follows him close behind, holding her nose. "Not to say he's not smelly himself," she says in greeting.  
      
Thomas rolls his eyes at their antics. This he's used to by now.   
      
"Yea, Yea. Nice to see you guys too," Thomas says sarcastically and Brenda laughs.   
      
"Well, shank," Minho gestures around to the cafeteria-like area. "Welcome to the Homestead!"   
      
Thomas nods, and glances back at Gally, who looks a little like he might get sick any minute now. Minho and Brenda notice him like they didn't see him there before.   
      
Brenda walks over and puts her arm around his back. "Hey big guy, you okay?" Brenda asks more like a mother than a concerned friend. Gally glances at her appreciatively.  
      
"Yea, just talked to Jorge," he says, sighing dramatically. "And you know how intense he is."  
      
Brenda laughs loudly. "Better than anyone!"  
      
Thomas laughs along with her before catching a familiar scent in his nose. He perks up, recognizing it as the scent he smelled this morning in the jail-like cells.   
      
Thomas wanders a bit, following the warm scent, coming to the entrance to the Homestead. He peeks behind the curtain to the outside and sees a thin figure walk out of the woods.   
      
Thomas gasps when he recognizes the halo of blonde hair and deep brown eyes; even from this far away. It was the last fave he saw before he blacked out that day. The fire of curiosity for the werewolf burns brighter now that the boy is in view, and Thomas starts to take a step to run to him, before a hand clamps down on the back of his shirt and hauls him back   
      
"A-ah! You leave that poor boy alone," Brenda's voice sounds from behind him as her hand pulls him farther away from the entrance. Thomas reached out like a child before she swats his hand down. "He has been so stressed over the past couple days you wouldn't even know! So leave it!"  
      
"Bu-," Thomas starts.   
      
"No buts!" Brenda waves a finger in his face, and Thomas pouts when he hears Minho's and Gally's laughter at the scene.   
      
"Damn woman!" Minho chortles our through his laughter and Brenda smirks at him.   
      
Thomas laughs despite himself, but his laughter dies quickly when he turns around and sees many eyes on him, just light before. Except this time as soon as Thomas sees, thy quickly look back down to their food and continue their conversations.   
      
Gally notices how uncomfortable Thomas looks and brings a heavy hand down on his back in a comforting pat, leading him too a half filled table. Really, the only table in the whole room that isn't completely filled.   
      
Thomas takes a seat with Brenda next to him, Gally in front of him, and Minho on his other side.   
      
Another werewolf walks over with a tray filled and stacked to the brim with meats and other sorted food, placing it directly in from of Minho.   
      
Minho immediately digs in, making the new werewolf laughs at how messy it is.   
      
"So your not even gonna day thank you?" The werewolf says disbelieving. 

Minho looks up at him with a piece of chicken hanging out of his mouth. "Thanks Fry," Minho says, though it comes out all jumbled, making Thomas laugh. 

The werewolf looks to Thomas, just noticing him. 

"So you must be the greenie?" The werewolf says. 

Thomas nods. "I'm Thomas."

The werewolf laughs and smiles at him. Thomas decides he likes this werewolf. "I know who you are - so does every other werewolf in this room," the werewolf holds out his hand and Thomas shakes it. "Welcome home, Thomas. The names Frypan, but everyone just calls me Fry."

Thomas tilts his head and smiles. What an odd name. 

"Is Frypan a nickname?" Thomas asks, honestly curious. 

Frypan laughs at him like he made the best joke. "Of corse it is - my real names Sigmund Frued, and Siggy didn't really seem to fit, so everyone just calls me Fry." 

Thomas furrows his eyebrows. "But why Frypan?"

Frypan rolls his eyes at himself. "Because I can cook!" He says with gusto and Thomas laughs. 

"Oh yea!" Brenda says to herself as she grabs a piece of Minho's chicken. "Almost forgot," Brenda says as she reaches into her jacket and pulls out a plastic bag of blood. 

She slides it to him like she sliding him drugs and pats it, making it jiggle. "Nice and fresh," she says, flicking it. "Still warm."

Thomas can feel his eyes go black and his fangs grow as he grabs at the bag, not even wondering where it came from or if anyone was hurt. 

Thomas sinks his fangs into the side of the bag and moans; it's human blood and Brenda was right, it is still warm. 

Thomas sucks on it and feels it run down his throat, recognizing the flavor; it was the same as the smell this morning and the smell of the boy he saw earlier who Brenda told him to stay away from. Was that boy getting him blood; where was it from?

Thomas moans again at the taste, and groans when he realizes he's already drank it all. He pouts, and looks up to see Minho gagging. 

"God, should we give you some space?" Minho says, playfully disgusted. "Get a room!"

Everyone laughs, including Thomas, and for a while Thomas forgets that he isn't safe where he is and that he isn't home, no matter how much it feels like it and no matter how much Thomas wishes it were.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has a memory of saving a little werewolf girl named Maureen when he first found the werewolf territory; Thomas, Minho, Brenda, and Harriet talk about their pasts.

 

" _Ah!"_

 

_A scream rang out, breaking the peacefulness and playful banter going around the lunch table with Thomas, Teresa, Sonya, and Aris. Each of them shoot up and out of their seats, not knowing what just happened, but knowing it was something important._

_Thomas and his friends go off into the direction of the scream, their limbs ripping through thorns and branches and leaves. They're all family here, no one_ _gets left behind to be in pain while any of them can do anything about it._

_It's only been a couple months since Thomas, Teresa and their mother, Mary, became vampires, so all of them were just a little too_

_clumsy with their limbs, they all pay too little attention to their application of strength. It's also only been a couple of weeks since Sonya snuck into Thomas's hammock, feeling bored and creating a strong friendship between the four vampires_.

 

_Whilst running through the woods surrounding their home, Thomas realizes that he has never been to this part of the woods and his curiosity flares. He looks over to Teresa and sees her looking up at the areas weirdly while running. Had she been here before._

_"Thomas stop!" Aries's voice calls out, stopping Thomas split seconds before he could cross over into the opposite territory unknowingly. Thomas slides when he tries to stop too quickly and looks up to see what Aris was yelling about_.

 

_Thomas almost gasps at the sight; it was a whole new territory, with brighter colors and different plants. Everything looked different, like a whole new world._

_"Werewolf territory," Thomas distantly hears Sonya whisper. "We better go back and alert Alby - the werewolves might be looking for a fight."_

_Thomas shakes his head, disagreeing despite knowing close to nothin about werewolves. He just has a feeling_.

 

_Thomas can see Aris nod at what Sonya was saying out of the corner of his eye. "Thomas, come on," Teresa says behind him but Thomas shakes his head._

_"I'll be there in a second," he mumbles. He can hear Teresa sigh as she places a hand on his shoulder. "Just don't do something stupid like crossing the boundary, all right?"_

_Thomas nods while still watching the other territory. He heard Teresa's light footsteps on the ground before they_ _disappeared entirely when she started to run._

_Thomas just knows somethings out there, something that needs him._

_That's when he hears the whimpering and the distilling leaves. Thomas's head perks up, and his eyes focus on a small part of the woods near the territory line; it was a werewolf._

_Thomas gasps. He's never seen a werewolf, and is surprised at how normal it looks. It looks just like a human child. Thomas can see the look of fear in its eyes; fear of him._

_That's when Thomas sees the bear trap wrapped around its ankle, the blood staining the small werewolf's skin and the ground surrounding it._

_Thomas gasps and starts forward, making the child flinch. "It's alright," Thomas whispers gently, holding up his hands to show he has no intentions of hurting the child. "I just want to help you."_

 

_The child looks confused. "H-help me?" She mutters. "You don't want to hurt me?"_

_Thomas feels his face pinch in pain at what the child thought he was going to do, she couldn't have been three years old and had to worry about such a thing. Thomas shook his head quickly. "No, never," Thomas started. "I just need to take you back to my clan so they can help you."_

_Thomas tries to look as kind and convincing as he can, and the child succumbs. "Alright," she says painfully, sounding on the verge of tears_.

 

_Thomas nods, breathing a sigh of relief, and steps gingerly over the boundary line towards the child. Half expecting alarms to go off, Thomas relaxes when nothing happens._

_He creeps toward the little girl, picking her up as gently as she can, but she still cries out when there's a slight pull on her ankle and the trap. Thomas winces, picking up the trap as well, becoming very conscious of it._

_He wraps his arms around her warm, thin body. "Just hang on okay? This might hurt a bit," Thomas says before breaking_ _out in a sprint towards his mother's work place; their medical shelters._

_The girls muffled her cries in Thomas's shirt and he winces, feeling her claws grow a bit, sighing into his skin._

_The run doesn't take long and as soon as Thomas breaks free of the line of tree's into the Canopy, gasps ring out and spread through the vampires. Thomas_ _feels all eyes on him as he carries the werewolf girl and the trap through the crowd of vampires, all staring incredulously at Thomas._

_"Tom what are you doing?!" Teresa whisper yells at him as he continues making his way to where Thomas knows his mom works. "I told you not to do anything stupid!”_

_Thomas ignores her, continuing on. "No - you told me not to cross the boundary." Thomas ignores the fact that technically, he did cross the boundary line_.

 

" _You fool!" Teresa scoffs, always the voice of reason. "This could start a war if she dies, you know!”_

_Thomas stops and faces his sister. "She's not going to die - she'll be fine." Thomas sees the girl peeks up at him appreciatively, and Thomas continues on._

_Once Thomas gets to the medical facility section, his mother is already standing at the entrance, looking incredibly worried_.

_"Oh, Thomas," his mother starts behind she smells the werewolf, but Thomas shakes his head._

_"You have to help her ma, she's hurt." Thomas pleads, and his mother nods. "I know, sweetie." She says gently. "Bring her over to the gurney."_

_Thomas carried the girl over to the gurney, laying her down gently so that Thomas's mother can inspect her, but as Thomas turns to leave the little girl_ _grabbed into his sleeve._

_Thomas turned back to girl in question. "Don't leave," she begged, looking afraid. Thomas felt his heart go out to the girl, nodding and squatting next to her to hold her hand while she squeezed it back tightly._

_Thomas's mother buzzed about, calling to her comrades and fellow employees. Most seemed to stunned at the werewolf girl to do much, other than Jeff - one of Thomas's friends - who was collecting the supplies needed right alongside Thomas's mother_.

 

_"Alright sweetie," Thomas's mother starts, gently patting the area around the wound with cleanser. "What's your name?"_

_The werewolf girl squeezed Thomas's hand tighter when his mother starting putting on the cleanser from the sting. "Maureen," she said quietly, making Thomas's mother smile._

_"I love that name! I wanted to name my daughter Teresa that, but it didn't seem to fit that well," Thomas knew this tactic_ _his mother used on her patients; she got them calm and familiar with her so that they wouldn't panic once they got off of their adrenaline rush. Maureen smiled at her._

_"Is she the pretty black headed burp with the blue eyes?" Maureen asked, having seen Teresa earlier. Thomas's mother smiles brightly, nodding. "Yes it is."_

_She turns to Jeff. "The bear trap is silver, lined with wolfsbane. We're going to need to get it out so she can heal it it's gonna kill her," she whispers so that Maureen doesn't hear her, and Jeff nods, already turning to get the extra supplies_.

 

_"Thomas," Thomas's mother says, taking his attention. "I think your gonna have to go."_

_Thomas starts to protest on Maureen's behalf, but his mother gives him a look, making him sigh in submission. "We're going to need all the space and help we can get - go get Teresa."_

_Thomas nods, and gives Maureen one last reassuring squeeze before running off to go get his sister_.

 

                                       —

 

Thomas wakes up the second he smells the warm earthy smell he has for the past couple days. He sits up in bed and his eyes automatically turn black and his fangs pop out of his gums in recognition of the taste of the blood. But Thomas himself has no urge to hurt whoever it is who has the scent he knows this belongs to. In fact, he just wants to meet them and ask about where they got the blood from.

 

It's been four days since Thomas's meeting with Jorge and Gally, and four days since he last saw the boy. Everyday at breakfast, Gally, Minho or Brenda come and take him out of what he learned was called the Slammer and brings him a blood bag. Thomas knows it's from that boy, no matter who gives it to him.

 

Every morning for the past two days, Thomas has woken up with the scent of the boy in his nose and the taste on his tongue. It's been driving Thomas's curiosity up the wall. Who was that boy? Where did he get the blood from? Why is he avoiding Thomas?

 

Groaning, Thomas lies back down, knowing that if the boy was here, he was gone now. Throwing a arm over his eyes, Thomas tries and fails to keep the boy out of his head.

 

His blonde hair looked so soft, even from a distance. His eyes so deep, and so brown. His skin looked so soft, like it had never seen a pimple in its life. Thomas snorts, thinking of his acne faze when he was a human teenage boy.

 

The long clang at the top of the stairs alerts Thomas of a new presence in the Slammer. Thomas runs his eyes and sits up, wondering who it is today. Based on the quick light steps on the stairs, it's probably Minho.

 

Just as Thomas predicted, none other than Minho jumped the last couple of steps, landing gracefully at the bottom of the stairs. The impact echoes through the slammer and Thomas smiles at the expected actions.

 

Minho walks up to Thomas's cell and squats down in front of it.

 

"Sure you don't want to stay in here today, shank?" Minho says sarcastically.

 

Thomas lightly laughs up at the werewolf. "Come on, Minho, get me outta here," Thomas says, amused.

   

Minho smirks at Thomas, all the while unlatching the cell hatch and pulling it open for Thomas to climb out of. Thomas jumps out, feeling normal and comforts in his surroundings, which is unnatural in itself.

 

Minho seems to notice Thomas's jumpy, hyper mood and looks at him suspiciously. "Something different today? You seem a little..."

 

Thomas shrugs. "What? Normal?" Thomas guesses. Normal is how he feels.

 

"...yea," Minho replies, unsurely. Then he shrugs and twirls back around towards the stairs, taking them two at a time. "Well, come one then, shank!"

 

Thomas laughs and sprints up the stairs three at a time to catch up to Minho, laughing when he trips and tripping Minho whenever he can.

 

By this point he and Minho are like brothers; even though they'd only known each other little more than a week, they've gotten close quickly. But Thomas isn't complaining; it's nice to have someone here who he's close to.

 

But Minho isn't the only werewolf here Thomas is close to. There's also Brenda; who is just like a second mom by this point. There Frypan; who is like the fun uncle everyone loves. And Minho is just like the cool older brother yet also the annoying younger sibling at the same time. Thomas can decide which one, but he's thankful that he's made up his own little family so quickly, even though he is a vampire.

 

Thomas also feels - in a weird, different way of course - close to the blonde boy. Thomas doesn't even know his name, but he feels like he knows the boy. Thomas knows he's worried about they boy.

 

Thomas trips up on one of. The last stairs, face planting against the backs of Minho's legs. The both fall and laugh loudly. Thomas is so unused to obnoxious actions - everyone being at least somewhat quiet back at home - but it feels so right at the same time, like he's finally coming out of a shell he was being forced into.

 

Minho pushes open the doorway to the Slammer, and the two boys stumble out into the sunlight, their eyes used to the darkness of the Slammer. Minho groans, shielding his eyes against Thomas's glowing skin.

 

"Jesus, Glamour Gal, put on some clothes," Minho whines. "Your gonna pole someone's eye out with skin like that!"

 

Thomas raises an eyebrow. "Um - how?" Laughing, Thomas looks at Minho's squinting eyes and decides to take mercy on him by pulling Minho into a shaded area.

 

Minho shake shin off playfully and they start to make their way to the Homestead to get breakfast. "Just remind me to bring sunglasses next time, Alright shank?"

 

Thomas and Minho duck into the Homestead and make their way over to where Frypan is serving food a mile a minute to all sorts of hungry werewolves. Thomas stands behind a little one, and when they turn around with their food to run off, they bump into his leg. The child looks up a Thomas with wide eyes before asking, "are you the corpse?"

 

Minho freezes and purses his lips, looking at Thomas. Thomas jumps in surprise before laughing out loud. He rubs the little werewolf on the top of the head. "Yea that's me buddy. Go along now," Thomas pats the werewolf child one more time before he runs off to a table of werewolves, already whispering to his buddies about the vampire.

 

Frypan laughs at the look on Minho's face. "What are you surprised?" Minho shrugs at Frypan.

 

Fry gestures to Thomas. "The man calls himself Corpse; why would he be offended if a three year old called him corpse?"

 

Minho scrunched his nose at Frypan. "Cause that means they're stalling him that behind is back so much that the kids hear it!" Thomas winces and Minho looks to him apologetically. "Sorry..."

 

Thomas shrugs. "It's alright, man. No blood no foul, right?" Frypan chortles at that.

 

"So are y'all here to get food or what?" Frypan sasses at them. "Cause I gotta long line building behind you two fools!"

 

Minho throws his hands up in defense grabbing a tray of meat for him and Thomas. "Thanks anyway Fry," Thomas says over his shoulder as they walk away. Thomas can hear Frypan hum at him.

 

Minho leads Thomas over to a grassy spot without tables or floors and they sit down.

 

"So can you eat human food or is it just nasty?" Minho asks around a chicken wing. Thomas nods.

 

"Yea I can eat meat," Thomas says. "Well, I can eat anything. It's just that only meat digests - and blood is better. Human blood is the best kind though," Thomas explains.

 

Minho scrunches his nose in disgust. "Ew so like, if you eat a strawberries," Minho says holding up said fruit and examining it. "You would just have to throw it up later?"

 

Thomas nods sadly. He remembers the taste of human food when he was still human and missing it. Now it just tastes bland, like how gray would taste if you could taste colors.

 

"Gross, were eating!" A female voice sounds behind Thomas. Thomas looks back to see Brenda with her hands on her hips, Harriet following close behind.

 

"Brie!" Minho exclaims, shooting up and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, tugging her down to sit next got him. "We were just talking about you!"

 

"All good things I hope," Brenda sarcastically drawls. Minho nods with vigor.

 

"Oh yes, all compliments of your beauty and grace," Minho says in a singsong voice while tossing grapes into his mouth.

 

Harriet takes this as her cue to join in on the conversation. "Really? Cause I could have sworn I heard you talk about Thomas making himself throw up?" Harriet tilts her head, smirking.

 

Minho gasps, scandalized. "I would never!" Brenda laughs, flicking Minho's hand off of her shoulder.

 

Once all of the calm down from their laughter high, Brenda turns her all knowing eyes on Thomas. "So Tommy," she starts and Thomas mentally groans. "You seems extra comfy today - any reason why?"

 

"Well, first of all - Don't call me Tommy. No one's called my that since I was a kid," Thomas starts, holding up a finger. "And no specific reason, it's just that you all remind me so much of home that it's easy to fall into familiar patterns."

 

Brenda nods knowingly. See, Thomas thinks, the mom friend.

 

Harriet looms to Thomas curiosity. "Hey, what's that like anyway!"

 

"What, vampire clans?" Thomas asks and Harriet nods.

 

"Well," Thomas starts, taking a deep breath. This might take a while. "We didn't have this whole Glade type thing like you guys do, obviously. But we do have pretty much the same jobs and things. We had runners, a Slammer, med-jacks, track-hoes, and all of 'em. The only thing is that they weren't called the same; there were jails instead of Slammers, and instead of the Homestead it was out Canopy, gardeners instead of track-hoes, and so on.

 

"We had this huge canopy type thing that had the lunch house and the teaching grounds under it. Next to it we had out slaughterhouse for our food - we would eat animals and drink their blood instead of humans. We had a lot of trees that wood loom over us, and all of our hammocks to sleep it."

 

Thomas laughs at the memories with his closest friends.

 

"Most nights, all my friends and I would just crowd into mine and my sisters bunk, which was right above mine. That or we'd bribe whoever slept closest to the hammock we'd be crowded in to switch with us so we wouldn't all be sleeping in one or two."

 

Thomas's smile fades as he remembers that that's all the past and that it won't happen again; not if they're all dead.

 

"The worst thing is," he begins. "I don't know who survived, if they're all dead. When your being chased out of your own territory with guns pointed at your back, you don't really have time to think."

 

He looks up and sees Brenda, Minho and Harriet listening closely and actually curious, really caring about what he has to say.

 

"You sound like you really cared about them," Brenda says around the fist that she's leaning on. Harriet nods in agreement.

 

"I still do," Thomas adds, lost in memories of his family.

 

"I remember my old family," Minho chimes in. All eyes turn to Minho this time, as he sits back and brushes crumbs off of his blue button up shirt. "Now werewolf's memories may not be as sharp as a vampire's but they're still better than average, so hang in there with me."

 

"Before I was a werewolf,"

Minho began. "I was just a a normal student, who went to a normal school. I liked to skateboard, I ran track, played football for two years but gave up on that." Minho laughs at that, seemingly lost in his own head. It seems easy for anyone who's gonna through anything traumatic as they have.

 

"I had a lot of friends, but it didn't seem like they really cared for me, you know? They only wanted the parts that were happy and funny and discarded everything else," Minho mutters the last part. "And it sucked, you know?" Thomas nodded, not really understanding how that felt but sincerely wanting to be there for Minho.

 

"Well, that all changed when I was at a party, got drunk and was in a car accident. It was already in the middle of no where, and what else is an easier target than a wandering drunk kid with no witnesses?" Minho shrugs. "So that's where I was turned - quite the story, I know.

 

"At first I was confused, didn't know what I was or anything, I just knew that something was different; that I wasn't quite human anymore. But then, the night after I turned, when I was wandering naked through the woods, these air crafts filled up the sky above me and these men in black and blue suits dropped down the wires with stun guns. I don't know what happened next."

 

Thomas looked at Minho with wide eyes, not fully processing what Minho was telling him. Looking around at Brenda and Harriet, Thomas assessed that while Brenda might already have known, Harriet is in the same place Thomas is in.

 

"Turns out the guts who captured me are part of a department type thing. It's called WCKD; stands for world catastrophe killzone department. Used to be called WICKED: World In Catastrophe Killzone Experimental Department but they must of thought the name WICKED would get them a bad reputation or some shit. It's main goal is to kill all the supernatural species; they think it's like a sickness or a parasite that this world needs to be rid of," Thomas feels chills run through him at the mention of WCKD.

 

"Everyday for years, I would be woken up and put back to sleep, injected with serums, shocked, practices on with various weapons. It was only a week after they starting putting me in these hallucinatory fear landscape things that I broke out. Some other subjects and I - I was subject A1 - were being transported to a new facility when there was a train crash. I broke out and that's when Ben found me, brought me to Jorge."

 

Minho looked down at his empty plate, everyone silent as they absorb Minho's past. Brenda leans close to Minho while he nods, whispering things Thomas strains not to hear; it's their private moment and Thomas already feels like he's intruding.

 

Harriet clears her throat, the three pairs of eyes looking to her.

 

"I'm a born werewolf, so I don't know much about the pain of an immediate changing, but I do know the pain of having you whole pack torn away from you," Harriet begins. "I had a whole family, all my own. I had three little brothers, two older sisters, and one older brother. I had a mama and a papa, and all of us would sit around the fire every night, making up ghost stories and legends that were never true."

 

Harriet smiles a sad smile in remembrance, before it melts away. "But then one night, I decided I wanted to go to the territory line and look over at the witches land. It was always changing and mesmerizing, never looking the same. I was sitting in a tree when I heard whirring and clicking noises. I was smaller, so I was curious and climbed down a little farther to see what it was."

 

Harriet is shaking by now, feeling face showing a conflict between anger and despair.

 

"Then I heard the screams. My brothers, my sisters, mama, papa; all gone and dead. Killed, slaughtered by these nasty creatures designed by WCKD to kill any supernaturally creatures deemed unfit for experimentation."

 

Brenda leans across the table, placing her hand over Harriet's shaking hands and squeezing softly. "I'm so sorry, Harriet," Brenda whispers.

 

Harriet nods, and reaches to Thomas, who reaches to Minho. They all sit in a circle holding each other's hands, before Brenda sits up straighter and brushes herself off.

 

"Guess it's my turn then, huh?" Brenda asks and Thomas gives a weak chuckles. Brenda pats his knee.

 

"I guess my story isn't really sad, more like rebirth into something that I was meant to be, you know?" Brenda begins, settling on her knees. "When I was a human, I always felt like I was born in the wrong body; I felt awkward and clumsy and all sorts off wrong.

 

"I was an orphan anyway, so I guess it never really mattered when I ran away from my orphanage. The people who ran it were shanks and I had been planning my escape for at least two years. On the night that I ran away, I was almost caught. I got so frantic to get away, I sliced my arm open on the side of the building."

 

Brenda shifts and runs her right arm, where Thomas guesses she must have gotten cut.

 

"There was blood everywhere; I shouldn't have been surprised when I attacked a group of vampires who had been hunting. Jorge found me just in time - he saved my life..." Brenda's sentence leads off.

 

She shrugs. "I guess I kind of made Jorge bring me along with him, but he also became something of a father figure to me - I promised myself and him I would never leave his side."

 

Brenda looks around at the sob group of Thomas, Harriet and Minho and sighs dramatically. "Damn! Well, would you look at the lot of us!"

 

Thomas laughed along with her, albeit weakly. "The most unlikely foursome in this whole pack!" Brenda continued.

 

Minho smirks and leans back playfully, arms raised in submission. "Woah, woah, woah! Who said anything about a foursome?"

 

They all laugh fondly at each other, all of them thankful they got the serious stuff out of the way, not needing to worry about it later on.

 

Thomas's throat vibrates and Harriet shrieks. Thomas gives her a raised eyebrow.

 

"What the hell was that?" It's Brenda who speaks.

 

Thomas rolls his eyes. "Will you shanks calm down? It's just like when your stomach growls," Thomas drawls. It's not that weird...

 

Brenda obnoxiously chortles, grabbing onto her stomach for support. "Oh you poor thing!"

 

Harriet laughs along with Brenda, handing Thomas the blood bag that she had previously forgotten to give Thomas. Thomas is thankful for it, even though it's a little cold by now.

 

"Thanks, Harriette," Thomas mumbles around his fangs, which are already poking out of his mouth in excitement. Harriet giggles at them, saying, "Anytime."

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, each memory that Thomas has each night is going cronilogucally further back in time. Thank you for reading! ;P


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas meets a very special someone...

" _Wow," a singsong female voice says quietly whispering to him. "You look like quite the corpse."_

_Thomas moves his arm from over his eyes and peeks up at the blonde girl watching him from his hammock. Thomas lifts an eyebrow._

_"Don't we all?" Thomas retorts, turning into his side, facing away from the girls intelligent eyes. Thomas can hear the girl chuckle lightly, and it's quiet for a moment after that. Thomas breaths a sigh of relief, hoping she had gone._

_Thomas almost shrieks when the girls head pops up on the other side of the hammock._

_"Actually, you look worse than most," the girls says as if Thomas hadn't just had the vampire version of a heart attack. "You a newborn? Oh god - your not squeamish, are you?"_

_Thomas coughs out a disbelieving laugh at the thought. A vampire, squeamish at the sight of blood. Yet it didn't sound too far from what was his actual issue._

_"Actually, as funny as it sounds," Thomas reluctantly lets out. It's not like the vampire was going anywhere anytime soon. "A little bit."_

_The girl stares at him for a moment, like he made a bad joke, before her eyes widen and she gets serious. "Oh my god your not kidding."_

_Thomas winces and shakes his head side to side. The girl shakes her head with a small smile on her face._

_"Alright then, scoot over," the girl says, already pushing Thomas over to make more space on his hammock._

_Thomas stares at her like she just slapped him with a fish. "What? What are you doing - go back to your own hammock!"_

_Sonya rolls her eyes. "Come on, it's like a slumber party! We've gotta talk to serious talk and I'll give you advice!"_

_They stare disbelieving at each other, each for completely different reasons, until Thomas gives in to the girl's stubbornness._

_The girl smiles like she just got a cookie and clumsily slings herself into the hammock next to Thomas. Thomas spits when he gets a mouthful of blonde braids, scowling hat his situation._

_"The names Sonya, by the way," the girl - Sonya - seems to have a slight accent now that Thomas can calmly listen. He wonders where it's from._

_"So," Thomas starts, annoyed. "Remind why your here in my hammock and not in your own?"_

_Sonya hums. "Right," she starts, turning into her side towards him. "I was just bored. I honestly give terrible advice."_

_Thomas huffs, a little amused, though he wouldn't ever admit it to Sonya._

_Sonya lays back down, twiddling with her braid. "What's your name again?" Sonya asks, obviously having forgotten to ask before fighting to get into his bed. Thomas finds that to be an unfortunate choice of wording._

_"Thomas," he says without thinking about it, and Sonya smiles to herself._

_"Tommy," she says in a whispered voice. "My brother used to dream about a boy named Tommy. Mum and I always thought it was just his imaginary friend, since kids at our school didn't really like him. They picked on him."_

_Sonya's smile melts into a frown at the memory, and Thomas can feel his mood drop with it. The girl was very empathetic and contagious._

_Thomas could feel his usual curiosity resurface. "What happened to him?" Thomas asks before he could think about the consequences._

_Sonya's fingers stop twirling with her braid and freeze in place, her eyes taking on a far away look._

_"He was attacked by wolves," she mutters. "Mum and went out to look for him, but- there was no trace. It was like he just disappeared. No blood, no signs of struggle, just- gone forever."_

_Thomas immediately regrets asking, feeling bad for Sonya and cursing himself for bringing up the subject._

_"That was the same night I was changed by Alby," Sonya continues. "I was out looking for him, and i got lost, didn't know where I was._

_Then came night fall, and I was still in the middle of a forest. I couldn't see anything and started panicking. I was running through the forest blind when I ran all the way off a cliff. Alby found me at the bottom, saved me just in time," Sonya finishes._

_Thomas marvels at her story and pities her at the same time. She'll never know what happened to her brother or her mother, lost both in one night._

_"Then I found Aris," Sonya smiles fondly, and shifts, getting comfortable. "He's my boyfriend,"_

_Sonya continues when she sees Thomas's questioning look, and he nods._

_"Sonya?" A male voice whispersloudly a couple hammocks away, and Thomas can see Sonya's eyes and smile brighten at the sound._

_"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," she mutters before calling out louder, "over here, Aris."_

_Thomas sees a head covered in mousy brown hair peek up out of a hammock a ways down and Thomas waves. Aris returns the gesture._

_"I'm gonna go," Sonya whispers, practically falling out of Thomas's hammock, stumbling her way over to Aris. "Good luck with you vampiric squeamishness!"_

_Thomas chuckles at her antics, knowing that that won't be the last he sees of Sonya. Thomas wonders on the topic of her brother and his dreams of a boy named Tommy before falling asleep._

 

 

— Present —

 

 

 

Thomas jumps awake the same way he had for the past six days. It's only been two since he had the heavy conversation about his past with Brenda, Harriet and Minho.

 

 

He smells the fresh smell of warmth and Earth, sighing. He wishes he could find some way to convince Brenda to let Thomas meet the boy in person. Maybe thank him for finding him blood some how, ask where he got it. Maybe even get a little closer, take in the boys scent. Thomas wonders if it would smell different up close, more potent...

 

 

Okay no no no no no. You haven't even met the dude. And why would you even have feeling for him - why would you feel anything other than curiosity and friendship? Thomas shakes his head, confused.

 

 

Thomas is taken out of his thoughts by the familiar bang of the slammer door closing and footsteps coming down the stairs. Thomas recognizes Minho's quick light footsteps, sometimes skipping stairs from what Thomas can hear, and jumping into his view.

 

 

"Alright shank," Minho starts immediately. Minho wipes nonexistent sweat off of his forehead dramatically. "I'm getting more fit by the day running up and down the stairs to get you!"

 

 

Minho swaggers overbto Thomas's cell and plops down against his, sighing. "Up and down, and up and down, and up and down!" Minho gestured wildly. "It's very repetitive, don't you think?"

 

 

Thomas doesn't answer, just watched as Minho puts on his usual show, knowing that Minho has a point and is going to get there with it without Thomas.

 

 

"Well, I talked with Jorge," Minho says, rolling his eyes. "And we both came to the conclusion that it's high time you got yourself a job and a room here in the Glade," Minho finishes.

 

 

Thomas shoots up. A room? An actual bed? Freedom do things?

 

 

Minho laughs at his expression. "Don't get too excited, shank! Harriet's room is right next to yours," Minho says, making Thomas lift an eyebrow. And why is that such a bad thing. Minho rolls his eyes.

 

 

"Your forgetting her job in the Glade," Minho says with a lilt, urging Thomas to finish for him.

 

 

Thomas pouts. "She's a guard dog," he mumbles dejectedly.

 

 

"Right!" Minho exclaims, then pauses. "Well, I wouldn't use those words in front of her - more like a, bodyguard," Minho advises him, Thomas nodding all the while smiling.

 

 

"Well can you get me outta here, then?" Thomas gestures around the Slammer, Minho jumping into action and unlatching the latch holding Thomas in the cell.

 

 

"Lead the way," Thomas gestures to the stairwell.

 

 

—

 

 

Thomas's room is one of many in a long, wide hallway. It's so inconspicuous and normal Thomas has to double check Minho to be sure if it's the right one. After Minho nods to Thomas encouragingly, Thomas grabs hold of the nob, opening the door.

 

 

The room itself is cozy but neutral, like it could belong to any boy or girl. There weren't any aspects of it that made it seem familiar to Thomas, but he knew with a few of his own touches, it would become home.

 

 

In the corner closest to the door there was an empty shelf and a large window, shining warm light into the room. Thomas takes a moment to watch the dust particles in the air move and sway with the light. There is a short and squat cabinet running along the length of the wall that must be meant for holding clothes under the long window and next to the shelf. In the other corner along the wall Thomas is standing next to is a large bed, looking comfy and fluffy, taking up just the right amount of space.

 

 

Thomas walks over to the bed, running his fingers along the covers. Just soft enough to not be uncomfortable and firm enough that he's not drowning in his own bed. Thomas smiles; perfect.

 

 

"Do you like it?" Minho's voice sounds behind him. Thomas turns, seeing Minho leaning against the doorway. Minho is looking around the room with a sort of fondness. "Newt practically slaved over making this room perfect."

 

 

Thomas's ears perk at the name; again with this 'Newt' guy. "Who is that anyways? Why haven't they come to meet me?" Thomas asks curiously this time, not angry about the fact that this mysterious figure and Jorge are the people keeping him here anymore. Thomas likes it here; he's getting used to it.

 

 

Minho looks suddenly uncomfortable, walking over and dropping on the bed, making it bounce. "He, uh," Minho scratches his neck, searching for the right words. "Brenda is making him wait for the right moment for you two to meet."

 

 

Thomas furrows his eyebrows in confusion, sitting down next to Minho. "Why would I have to wait to meet him?"

 

 

Minho winces. "I'm not supposed to tell you. Brenda would kick my ass," Minho trails off, looking at his shoes. "Newt too, probably."

 

 

Thomas looks away, pouting. What was the big deal anyways? Minho must have seen his face - Thomas is practically an open book, that's what his mother used to call him back when they were still in the clan - and decided to have mercy on him.

 

 

"You know what, shank?" Minho begins, sitting up straighter. Thomas looks to him questioningly. "I wasn't supposed to give you your job today, but I'm going to anyway. I can't see the boredom killing you!"

 

 

Thomas tries to hide his excitement and fails. "I'm not bored," Thomas weakly protests. "And What is my job anyway?"

 

 

Minho smirks at that. "I was hoping you would say that," the Asian begins. "Your gonna start off as a track-hoe with Newt."

 

 

Thomas perks up; he's gonna newt newt today? "Finally!" Thomas sighs, then corrects himself upon Minho's curious face. "No more secrecy about this 'Newt' guy - he's all you and Brenda ever talk about!"

 

 

Minho rolls his eyes, snorting. "No he's not! In fact, Brenda told me to stay away from the topic of Newt!"

 

 

The newfound fact only makes Thomas's curiosity burn brighter. "So am I gonna get to know why?"

 

 

Minho raises an eyebrow. "Why what? Why Brenda doesn't want us to talk about him?" Thomas nods. "Well, that's kinda up to Newt, and, knowing him probably not."

 

 

Thomas pouts at that, but perks right back up at the reminder that he finally has something to do other than just wait on someone to come pick him up for breakfast.

 

 

"Let's go then!" Thomas says excitedly, practically dragging Minho out of the room. Minho trips after Thomas, trying to get his bearings.

 

 

Together they run through the hallway to the outside where the sun shines bright. This time, Thomas was wearing long sleeves, long pants, and a hat so his skin wouldn't distract any one too much or worse, blind them enough that they accidentally hurt themselves. 

 

 

Thomas and Minho make their way through the field to a part where plants are separated into sections, all kinds of different foods growing. From what Thomas can smell, strawberries, eggplant, carrots, blackberries-

 

 

And that's when it hits him; the warm earthy smell he's quickly come to be obsessed with. He perks up, and unintentionally uses his vampiric speed, follows the scent deeper into the small maze-like garden.

 

 

Thomas can feel his speed increasing dangerously, and Minho distantly calling his name, but doesn't care enough to listen or do anything about it. He can smell the scent get more potent and deeper until-

 

 

-until he runs smack into someone's back and falls flat on his ass.

 

 

Thomas shakes his head, groaning and cradling it in pain. Did he hit it on something? Everything suddenly seems so much slower, even the air around Thomas feels thicker with the scent surrounding him.

 

 

"Bloody Hell, are you alright, mate-" a soft, male voice sounds from above Thomas. The delicate lilt alerts Thomas that the boy is British, and Thomas looks up when he hears a gasp, his hand still cradling his aching forehead.

 

 

Thomas's jaw drops when he recognizes the blonde beauty. It's the boy he's been seeing in his mind constantly, the one who has been bringing him blood somehow. Thomas feels like he's drowning in honey as he looks into the deep brown of the boy's eyes.

 

 

"Thomas! Thomas, where are y- oh." Thomas can hear Minho say. The boy is still just looking at him, and Thomas looking right back into the boys eyes, mesmerized. Thomas feels a thrill go through him. The boy’s hair looks even softer up close, if possible, his skin even more smooth.

 

 

"Thomas," Minho says, stumbling into view next to the boy. "This is Newt. He's in charge around here whenever Jorge is unable."

 

 

Thomas gasps quietly and his jaw drops a bit, in shock. This was the boy who Brenda and Minho have been talking about. Thomas could have slapped himself for being so stupid when he remembers Brenda wanting to keep Thomas from going to the boy a couple days ago, and then Minho when he said earlier than Brenda was trying to keep the two apart until the right time. Brenda was going to kill him, but Thomas couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment.

 

 

The boy - Newt - holds out his hand for Thomas as if in a daze. Thomas stares at the hand; it looks so soft, and creamy. Thomas grabs hold of it, and feels Newt pull him up off of the ground. Thomas brushes the dirt off of his with one hand while still holding Newt's with the other. Thomas wasn't planning on letting go anytime soon.

 

 

"I'm Thomas," Thomas mumbles quietly, not wanting to break the peace between the two. In the corner of his eye, Thomas can see Minho shifting and fiddling with his fingers; either feeling like he's third-wheeling or scared of how Brenda is going to react to this. Probably both - Brenda could be terrifying.

 

 

All thoughts fly out of Thomas's brain the second Newt smiles back at Thomas and nods. "Yea, I know. As does everyone else - your kinda famous here, Tommy."

 

 

Thomas almost jumps at the nickname, his mind reminding him of someone who would become his best friend back at home, Sonya. She had a brother who had dreams of a boy named Tommy - she never did tell me his name, Thomas thinks. Come to think of it, Newt’s delicate features had a striking similarity with Sonya’s.

 

 

He couldn’t find himself to be annoyed with Newt for calling him Tommy though, it seemed different with Newt than it did with Minho and Brenda.

 

 

Shaking his head, Thomas brings himself back to the present. Back to Newt. Thomas is still holding his hand tightly, not wanting to let go and stop feeling the slightly calloused skin against his own, but reluctantly doing so. He doesn't want to seem weird to this angelic figure Thomas literally just met a couple minutes ago by running into the boy at full speed, god Thomas how much of an idiot can you be-!

 

 

Thomas is pulled back out of his self deprecating thoughts when he notices that Newt is still smiling at him fondly, like he's known him all his life, and Thomas feels the same familiarity. God Minho must feel like he's third-wheeling so hard, Thomas laughs to himself.

 

 

"You better close your mouth, Tommy, or you'll catch flies," Newt jokingly says to Thomas, making him blush, immediately closing his mouth in a comical way. Newt laughs At Thomas's antics, and Thomas glows with pride at being able to make the boy laugh and smile.

 

 

"Oi, Newt, can you hand me the- oh," a new voice calls out, pausing when he sees Minho and Thomas. Shimmying over awkwardly, the new guy gestures to Thomas.

 

 

"You must be the vampire everyone's been talking about," the guy starts, the winces, rubbing his forehead. "Sorry - that came out wrong."

 

 

Thomas laughs, used to this by now; these awkward meetings. He holds out his hand and the boy takes it, shaking hesitantly.

 

 

"Tommy, this is Zart," Newt's voice rings behind him, and Thomas looks back to Newt, smiling. Minho clears his throat after a moment, pointedly looking at Thomas, who blushes at being caught staring at Newt.

 

 

Thoma turns back to the boy - Zart. "Nice to meet you," Thomas says as Zart shakes his head to get the blonde curls out of his face. Zart nods back at him.

 

 

Thomas turns back to Newt, smiling. He knows he must seem weird, being so clingy to someone he just met, but Newt didn't seem to mind. There was something about the boy, something familiar that Thomas just couldn’t put his finger on...

 

Minho clears his throat again, and everyone looks to the boy with his arms crossed. “Alright, well I have to get back to work,” the boy says begrudgingly, sass dripping from Minho’s tone. “You can handle Tommy, can’t you Newt?” Minho smirks and tilts his head as Thomas grumbles at the name. Only Newt can call him Tommy...

 

 

Thomas sees Newt rolls his eyes at Minho. “If I can handle your lazy bum I can handle anything!” Newt says with a smirk. Minho chuckles and salutes the three before turning around and running back the way they came.

 

 

Thomas walked over to Newt, who had gone back to work, and squats beside him. Newt hands him a pair of gloves, a bucket of something that Thomas doesn’t really want to know what it is, and a shovel.

 

 

"So here's what your going to do-" Newt starts, but Thomas can’t say that he hears the boy, to caught up in staring at the boy's flawless face. Thomas feels his pupils sharpen to be able to see the closer details on Newt’s face.

 

 

Thomas looked at the shape of his nose, and how it gracefully bowed into his curled red lips, which were saying or instructing something, but Thomas wasn’t listening very well. He was too distracted looking at every detail on the blond’s face. The cute scrunch of his dark eyebrows, how his fluffy hair looked like a halo around his head and feel into his eyes.

 

 

God, Thomas thought, his eyes. They were so large and wide and innocent, Thomas thought he could stare into them all day. They were a dark brown, but the sun was shining in them and they scrunch up to block out the sun. Thomas giggled at how cute it was.

 

 

It took Thomas a couple seconds to realize that while he was dreaming about all the colors in Newt’s eyes, they were staring right back at him. Fingers snapped in front of Thomas’s face and he jerked.

 

 

“Tommy? You alright there, mate?” Newt asked, concern creasing his brow. Thomas wanted to reach out and touch it, but he only just managed to restrain himself. Thomas hears Zart snigger on the other side of Newt but Newt snaps back at him and silenced him immediately.

 

 

Thomas stares blankly at the scene, wanting to laugh at how it seems like Newt is a ‘Glade Mother’ of sorts to the werewolves. Wait- werewolves. He was being kept here against his will, and Newt was the reason! Why was Thomas acting so nice to them? He could be breaking out right about now!

 

 

Newt must have taken Thomas’s blank face for something else because he reaches forward to Thomas’s head. Thomas flinches back, but Newt still reaches out and grasps Thomas’s head, maneuvering it to wherever Newt is looking.

 

 

“He must’ve hit his head pretty hard...” Thomas hears Newt mumble, and Newt’s warm breath his the skin behind his ear. Thomas knows he would be blushing like crazy right about now if he had recently fed.

 

 

Newt stands up and grasps Thomas’s Arm, pulling him up. “Come on, up you go,” Newt says. Thomas stumbles, not expecting someone as delicate looking as Newt to be so strong. Once Thomas is on his feet, even as he’s stumbling, Newt slips an arm underneath Thomas’s to help carry him somewhere.

 

 

Thomas freezes up, and Newt starts carrying/dragging Thomas away. Through Thomas’s embarrasses shock he hears Zart giggling hysterically behind his hand.

 

“Let’s get you to the medjack,” Newt says easily, even when supporting most of Thomas’s weight. Thomas shivers from how warm Newt’s skin is against his own.

 

 

Once the two make it out of the maze-like area of plants the full sun hits Thomas and his skin shines brighter than Newt thought possible.

 

 

Newt groans and covers eyes with his free hand, laughing. “Bloody Hell, Tommy! I knew vampires shine in daylight but Jesus Christ your blinding me!”

 

 

Thomas laughs outright at Newt’s reaction and smiles. Maybe he could stay just a little bit longer...


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas spends some time getting to know a special someone and is reunited with two people he never thought he’d see again.

" _Thomas."_

_Thomas grumbles in his sleep. He doesn't want to wake up; the sun feels so warm on his face, his covers so light and perfect. He feels just the right amount of sleepy and Thomas feels as if he could stay in bed all day long._

_But that is apparently not what Thomas's little brother, Chuck, thinks._

_"Thomas," Chuck whispers in Thomas's ear. "Wake up! Breakfast is ready!"_

_"Go back to sleep, Chuck," Thomas grunts, pushing Chuck as far away from him as his sleepy body is able._

_But no matter how hard Thomas tries, he can't keep Chuck away for long. As soon as Chuck is pushed out of Thomas's reach, he launches himself through the air and lands on Thomas's side._

_"But Thomas!" Chuck whines, lengthening the o's and the a's in Thomas's name. "Papa's made macaroni!"_

_"For breakfast?" Thomas muses, still more than half way asleep. It's quiet for a moment; Chuck probably waiting on Thomas's answer, but again Chuck has never been the patient one in the family and the second Thomas's snores sound out loudly, Chuck shakes Thomas's shoulder wildly._

_"Wake!" Shake, shake, shake. "Up!" Shake, shake, shake, shake._

_Thomas groans loudly before brushes Chuck off of his shoulders again._

_Thomas distantly hears chuck huff in annoyance over Thomas's snores, then chuck taking a deep breath in- "mom!" Chuck screams loudly, extending the o._

_Thomas darts out of bed, flings himself at chuck and covers his mouth. Chuck giggles slightly muffled under Thomas's hand while Thomas glares at him._

_It's not his mother he's afraid of; she's the biggest sweetheart Thomas has ever met, and would probably just tell Chuck to leave Thomas alone while he sleeps. It his horn-headed sister he's afraid of, Teresa._

_Thomas can just picture it. She'd stomp in here, mad as a devil, pointing dingers at Thomas and Chuck. Probably yell at them about the noise. She never was a morning person._

_"Shut it, Chuck," Thomas whispers. Chuck tries to raise an eyebrow, but can't, only succeeding in raising both of them. "Or you'll wake the dragon," Thomas raising his eyebrows for emphasis._

_Chuck's eyes widen when he realizes what's about to happen. Even though Chuck was only seven, four years younger than Thomas's eleven, he was infinitely less oblivious than Thomas was. Chuck shoved Thomas back with all his might, and took Thomas's surprise to dive under Thomas's covers._

_It's too late once Thomas hears the heavy stomping footsteps coming around the corner, which Chuck obviously heard before him._

_Thomas freezes when his door, flings open to reveal the dragon herself, short black hair crazed and blazing blue eyes rimmed with red from sleep. She was dressed in a huge sweatshirt - was that his? - and sweatpants._

_Thomas prays to God that she's not on her period; those are the worst days. Thomas wrinkles his nose. Gross._

_Teresa must see him wrinkle his nose and takes it differently, thinking it's about her appearance, and her scowl deepens._

_Thomas gulps audible. If looks could kill, Thomas thinks, I would be fifty feet under._

_"If you two absolute buffoons," Teresa starts gravely. Thomas can feel the bed shake slightly from Chuck's attempt to condescending his laughter. "Don't get you act straight," Teresa takes the time to shut the door and make her way over to the closet. "I'm going to take one of these hangers, unravel it, and shove it up your ass!" Teresa finishes, waving a coat hanger at him and the lump under the bed covers._

_"Capeesh?" Teresa asks right before the covers practically explode backward, revealing a rolling Chuck, limbs spread wide._

_"Capeesh!" Chuck yells back and Teresa nods, satisfied._

_Flinging the coat hanger behind her somewhere she can't see, Teresa walks out of the room to go get food probably._

_Thomas turns on Chuck, who is now bouncing excitedly on his bed. Thomas smirks at how playful he is, always having the energy, even when tired._

_"See, Chuck," Thomas says, lying backwards on his bed. Chuck jumps onto his knees and lies across Thomas's stomach. "Look whatcha did, now she's pissed"_

_"She's always pissed," Chuck replies, the noise muffled under Thomas's pajamas. Thomas pffts._

_"Don't say that word in front of dad," Thomas tsks. "Then he'll be pissed."_

_Chuck raises his head to look at Thomas, then says "pissed" in his best British accent. Thomas laughs, "pissed!" In his best British accent back._

_The two roll around the bed, wrestling and saying the word 'pissed' in various accents._

_"Hey, idiots," Teresa calls from the doorway. Thomas and Chuck freeze in their rolling, looking over to Teresa curiously._

_"Mom made grits and eggs, you gonna come eat them or am I going to have to eat it all by myself?" Teresa says tiredly, and Thomas laughs._

_"Chuck told me she made macaroni!" Thomas says pointedly at Chuck. Chuck blushes and laughs._

_Teresa smirks and wrinkles her nose. "What, for breakfast?" She asks incredulously._

_"That's what I said!" Thomas exclaims, gesturing to Chuck, who is now rolling all over the bed again, laughing._

_"Well come on, you want to eat or what?" With that Teresa leaves, muttering 'idiots' fondly as she shuffles away to the kitchen._

_Thomas shoves Chuck's face into the covers playfully, getting up and running through the hallways to the kitchen, bumping along the walls._

_"Woah there!" Thomas's dad calls from sitting at the counter. "Slow it down!"_

_Thomas laughs apologetically, plowing down between Teresa and his father. "Sorry, dad," Thomas says distractedly, not really feeling sorry._

_His dad chuckles in response, looking to Thomas's kind mother shuffling about the kitchen, preparing their plates._

_"How did we ever do it, Mary?" Thomas's father wonders. "With all these rowdy children, how are we even doing it now?"_

_Thomas's mother turns, and pats Thomas and Teresa's cheeks fondly. "Because we love them with all our hearts," she says, squishing their cheeks._

_"Mom!" Thomas and Teresa drawl at the same time._

_Thomas's father rolls his eyes fondly, this is how it is in the mornings._

_"Hey," Thomas's father starts. "Where's chuck at-"_

_Just before he finishes his sentence, chuck rounds the corner, sliding along the floor in his fluffy socks, and finishing his grand entrance by slamming against the wall._

_"Charles!" Thomas's mother calls out, using his birth name in her distress._

_Chuck jumps back up and laughs. "Chuck, ma," Chuck corrects his mother, making her sigh at his antics._

_Chuck takes his seat on Teresa's lap, and she starts to distractedly play with Chucks hair so that he finally relaxes against her._

_Once Thomas gets his plate, along with everyone else, they all start digging in, chatting about what they think they're day will be like, what they dreamt about, and the like._

_Thomas looks around at his family, at each of their faces, and hopes that it will always be like this. That things will never change._

_But they did._

 

—

 

Thomas slowly comes back into consciousness, wanting to stay and soak in his dreams - or rather, his memories. He's been having them come back to him ever since he was staying here; some more important than others, but all of them meaningful to Thomas's overall person. It's surprising, vampires usually don't have dreams - so maybe it's because of the werewolves he's spending so much time around.

 

Thomas shifts so that his arms reach above his head in a lazy pose, stretching slowly. He sniffs the air, hoping to catch scent of that heavenly earthy smell that Thomas now identifies as Newt. A smile stretches Thomas's face.

 

Thomas remembers yesterday, and how Newt has practically carried him to their medjack. Nothing had been wrong with him of corse. A smile spreads across Thomas's face as he recalls how Newt had slapped him across the back of the head for giving his 'a bloody scare'.

 

The smile melts away when he remembers where he is though. He's surrounded by a pack of werewolves. Thomas is a vampire; werewolves and vampire have been enemies since day one, it's in their dna, their biology! And here Thomas is thinking about staying with them! And what would that entail? He would surly become a part of the pack, and if not then Thomas would become a slave to the pack. And to become a part of the pack he would have to become a werewolf.

 

A memory rises in the back of Thomas's mind, if he say his tribe was attacked and we was captured by this pack. He remembers someone on top of him just before an axe would have killed him, and searing pain in his neck. Thomas winces at the memory.

 

Wait... Thomas thinks. He reaches up to below his jawline and ear slowly, and touches in. Dull pain spreads through his body at the touch, and Thomas cries out, surprised at the unexpected reaction. He reaches up again, more careful this time, and bites down on his lip to keep in the groan when he touches the spot again.

 

He feels indentions where there should be smooth skin, and a slabbed over area where he must have bled. Was he... bitten?

 

Thomas recalls hearing something about a werewolf bite in school, but nothing else. His tribe had only wanted to teach their children about why to stay away from the werewolves, and nothing into more detail about how they work. Thomas cursed his tribe's educational system. Some information would be a little helpful right about now.

 

Thomas groans and curls up in his bed - his bed! Thomas has a bed, Thomas has never had a bed, anyway! - and pulls the thin covers over his head.

 

He distantly hears footsteps approaching his door, and sticks his face out of a hole in the blanket nest he made. Thomas sniffs the air to see if he can match a face to whoever is now very close to his door. When the smell of earth and sunshine hits Thomas's nose he lets out a high embarrassing squeak, and praise to whatever diety that may hear him that Newt didn't hear the sound he just made. By the soft chuckle Thomas hears, he is in no such luck.

 

Newt knocks on the door, calling, "Tommy? You up?" Thomas puts and bristles. Newt knows very well that Thomas is up, Newt is teasing him. Thomas glares at empty space.

 

"Y-yea. I'm up. Come in," Thomas mumbles, knowing Newt can hear him.

 

Newt walks into the room, and Thomas notices a small limp in his leg. Thomas scrunches his brow. Did he hurt himself? Is he okay?

 

Just as Thomas was about to say something about it, Newt burst out laughing. He crossed his arms over his stomach and doubled over. Thomas smiled, not knowing why the blond was laughing but happy that Newt was happy.

 

That is, until the blond wiped a tear from his eye and pointed lazily at Thomas. "Oh, look at you, Tommy! You seem that have gotten very comfortable!"

 

Thomas looks down and remembers that the only part of him that shows out of his man-made mound of blankets is his head, pouting.

 

"You know what they say," Newt starts again, amusement still dripping from his tone. "There's a thin line between laughing with someone and laughing at someone, and tommy, you've crossed that line!"

 

Thomas glares at the blond and another round of hysterical laughter puts out of the blond. Newt stumbles to the floor and Thomas smirks, and lightbulb-idea going off in his head. Thomas stinks out of his mound of blankets while Newt isn't watching, too busy wiping away tears of laughter and trying to breathe properly. Thomas grabs the nearest pillow and chucks it at Newt.

 

The pillow smacks Newt right in the face and he sobers up immediately, looking dumbstruck at Thomas.

 

Thomas smirks, knowing he won the fight and laughing at the look on Newt's face.

 

"Haha! You should see the look on your fa-" Thomas is interrupted when a pillow slaps him hard across the face.

 

"Pillow fight!" Newt screams excitedly, already up on his legs and swinging again at Thomas.

 

Thomas beams and shoots back to grab another pillow, and sprints to Newt's other side in a split second using his vampiric speed. He smacks Newt on the back of his legs, sweeping him off his feet.

 

"Oi! That ain't fair - no supernatural powers allowed!" Newt complains, a smile still stretching across his face. Thomas looks down at Newt, and tsks.

 

"Then you shouldn't have started it!" Thomas replies, shaking his pillow in the air. Newt rolls his eyes.

 

"Fine then, have it your way," Newt says before growling and practically launching himself at Thomas, pinning him down while repeatedly smacking him with his pillow.

 

Thomas laughs too hard to breathe, squirming and trying to get out of Newt's hold. "Off! Off!" Thomas shouts over his laughter but Newt ignores him and continues beating Thomas with the pillow.

 

"Fine-fine! I give!" Thomas shouts at last. Newt yells victoriously, holding his weapon of choice - his pillow - into the air. Thomas pouts, a smile still pulling at his mouth.

 

"Your a cheater," Thomas grumbles. Newt looks down at him and smirks dropping the pillow and leaning his hands against Thomas's chest.

 

"Your a sour loser," Newt retorts, still smiling happily. Thomas lays back and sighs contently, not minding the weight on top of him. Wait. Newt's on top of him.

 

Newt seemed to have noticed the same time Thomas did because he blushes furiously and stumbles off of Thomas, while Thomas lays there like a dummy, not knowing what to do with himself.

 

Newt runs a hand through his hair, making the light that was shining through the window glint off of it, again making it look like Newt has a halo. "Right, well. We do have work to do."

 

Thomas pushes himself up of his elbows, looking at Newt. "What kind of work?"

 

Newt reaches out a hand for Thomas to take, and Thomas grabs onto it. "Well, because you tricked me out of gardening yesterday, you'll try that out again, see if you have what it takes to be a track-hoe," Newt explains pulling Thomas to his feet. Thomas looses his balance a bit but Newt steadies him by grabbing onto Thomas's shoulders.

 

"You alright?" Newt asks, looking into Thomas's eyes. Thomas gets lost for a second, but shakes off the daze.

 

"Yea, yea," Thomas replies, gesturing for Newt to go on. Newt nods, and says, "good that."

 

"And we'll also see if you've got what it takes to be a nanny," Newt continues towards Thomas's door with a smirk on his face.

 

"Nanny?" Thomas asks, catching up with Newt as he walks out the door and shuts it behind him. Newt nods.

 

"You know, to take care of the littluns. Usually the mothers do that but sometimes there are those few people who are so good with the children we can give the mothers jobs so more stuff gets done around this heap," Newt explains, walking through the corridors to the outside.

 

Thomas looks around while Newt continues on talking. The corridors have a variety of doors to the left of him and windows to the right. They appear to be made of mud, branches, clay, and probably other things too that Thomas can't make out. Overall it seems pretty sturdy. Thomas's door is the farthest down, farthest away from the exit. Thomas grunts; makes sense.

 

"Oi," Newt says, places his hand on Thomas's chest. "You're not a very good listener are you?" Newt asks. Thomas shrugs, too distracted by the hand of his chest mixed with Newt's British accent. Damn, thomas thinks.

 

Newt looks him over and snorts, somehow making it look attractive. "Well, keep on, then," Newt says, turning back around and continuing walking though the corridors, dropping the hand that rested on Thomas's chest. He immediately misses the warmth.

 

Once the two make it to the main canopy - "the homestead," Newt calls it. "Where all the shit goes down." - Thomas can see only a few of the kind tables are littered here and there with werewolves. It must not be lunch time.

 

Thomas looks around; three walls are made of the same structure as the corridors he and Newt came out of, but one wall is completely open for people coming in and out. There are multiple doors on two on the walls that Thomas can only guess leads to more corridors and living spaces like his. Thomas looks across to the third wall, in between the two corridor filled walls, where there is a double door that Thomas recognizes as the one that leads to Jorge's space.

 

Newt continues walking to the open wall and out into the Glade, Thomas jogging to catch up where he'd been observing the homestead.

 

The sun blinds Thomas for a second once the two make it outside but his eyes quickly adjust. Thomas looks around at the place, the long grass tickling his ankles. Thomas looks up to see Newt looking at him, smiling.

 

"...what?" Thomas asks, smiling back at Newt. Newt breathes out a laugh and shakes his head. "Nothing." Thomas narrows his eyes.

 

Newt shakes whatever daze he was in off and points to a building near the homestead. "That right there is where I took your shank ass yesterday, Tommy, the Medjack."

 

The Medjack looked like a smaller version on the Homestead, except without living spaces pouring out of the sides. It has the same structure with a smaller canopy over the top, all except it had four walls, and a two two-way doors that swung back and forth when a boy that Thomas recognizes as Clint walked out of it.

 

Next, Newt pointed to a large oak tree up ahead where a large group of small children were playing with two girls about Thomas's age. "That's where the nanny's teach the littluns and play with them. Occasionally, a littlun will act too demonic and have to punished, but they're overall good kids. That Jeremy can be a bloody jerk, though, watch out for him."

 

Thomas laughs at Newt's antics, knowing he must be good with kids, even with the slight frown on his face, Thomas can see the fond smile beneath it. He can see that Newt cares for them deeply, as if they were his own. A sudden thought strikes Thomas.

 

"Are any of them..." Thomas begins, not really wanting to know the answer. Newt looks at him questioning oh. "Um, yours?"

 

Newt's eyes widen at the question. "Bloody Hell, no!" Thomas inadvertently breaths a sigh of relief. "Can't imagine anyone here I'd have them with." Thomas hides a smile at that, not really knowing why he's feeling like this.

 

"Heh, anyways, that over there..." Newt keeps talking, but Thomas isn't listening. Instead he's looking over across the Glade, to a familiar mop of brown curly hair. A memory of his dreams last night flashes through Thomas's head, dreams of his family, before...

 

"Tommy?" Newt says, placing a hand on Thomas's shoulder. "Are you alright?" Concern laces Newt's tone, but Thomas can't bring himself to look away from the boy across the Glade.

 

Thomas listens, strains his ears as carefully as ever to across the Glade, and he hears a familiar laugh and voice.

 

"Chuck..." he whispers, and Newt's hand drops from his shoulder.

 

"Y...you know Chuck?" Newt asks behind him. "Tommy?" Newt asks again, sliding into Thomas view and slipping a hand around his neck and jaw, trying to get Thomas to look at him.

 

The boy turns around a bit, just enough so that Thomas can see enough of his face to be able to see. That's his little brother. Chuck.

 

Before Thomas can stop himself, he steps forward past Newt and screams, "Chuck!"

 

Chuck and the people surrounding him freeze and Chuck turns to where his voice was called by that voice, the voice him and his father had been searching for for years until Jorge told them to give up and build themselves a new life here in the Glade.

 

"...Thomas?" Chuck whispers, seeing the figure of his brother standing so far away with Newt. And even though Chuck called him so quietly, Thomas heard.

 

"Chuck!" Thomas screamed again, happiness filling his tone.

 

"Thomas!" Chuck yells one more time breaking out into a run towards his brother. Thomas wasted no time and ran faster than ever, faster than when he was being chased out of his own territory by hunters, towards his brother.

 

When they meet, Chuck jumps up and wraps his arms around his big brothers neck, tears soaking Thomas's shirt. Thomas picks him up and twirls him, happiness and relief coming in big bursts of laughter.

 

Thomas shakes violently, because vampire are unable to cry, but Chuck's face is soaked with tears of relief.

 

Thomas drops to his knees, still holding Chuck. He grasps his face, "you've gotten so big!" Thomas laughs again and Chuck punches Thomas's shoulder, tears still coming. "I thought you were dead, you big baby!"

 

Thomas wraps him back up in his arms tightly. "You thought we were dead? We thought you were dead!" Chuck retorts loudly.

 

Thomas pulls back at a thought. "Wait, we?"

 

"Yea, dad and I," Chuck starts, then his eyes widen. "Oh my god, dad!"

 

Thomas breaks out in an even bigger smile. "Dads alive?" Chuck nods excitedly. "Mhmm, come on we've gotta tell him!"

 

Chuck pulled Thomas to his feet and in a different direction with surprising strength. This lead Thomas to another realization. "Wait- Chuck, why are you here?"

 

Chuck stopped and looked up at Thomas, confused. "Same as you, Thomas. I'm a werewolf."

 

Thomas stood there still for a second, not quite knowing how to process this fact. Of corse that's the, if not only, most obvious reason why Chuck would be in the Glade, but it still seemed so unexpected to find that his father and his little baby brother had been turned into what Thomas had been taught to stay away from for decades.

 

"Chuck..." Thomas starts, his voice tight. "I'm not a werewolf." He finally chokes out and looks back up at Chuck.

 

Chuck scrunches his eyebrows, confused, but then he sniffs Thomas's scent and realizes.

 

"It's you..." Chuck says, backing away a bit. "Your the vampire..." Thomas reaches out for him but Chuck flinches a little bit. Thomas can feel a little piece of himself break.

 

"Chuck-" Thomas starts, but is interrupted when Chuck flings himself back around Thomas.

 

"I don't care," Chuck says, his voice muffled by Thomas's shirt. "Your still my brother, you'll always be my brother."

 

Thomas laughs in relief  and wraps his arms around his brother, holding him after so many years had gone by between the two.

 

Chuck pulls back, wiping his eyes, which had again become wet with tears. He smiles at Thomas encouragingly. "Come on," Chuck says, his happy self again. "Let's go see dad."

 

Thomas shakes with excitement and stands himself and his not-so-baby-brother up and begins to follow Chuck in the same direction as before when-

 

"Wait, what?"

 

Thomas and Chuck turn around to see a dark skinned man standing there, looking as co fused as ever.

 

"Jeff!" Chuck exclaims. He smiles widely and gestures to the vampire next to him. "This is Thomas!"

 

The man - Jeff - nods knowingly. "Yea, I know who the vampire is. But what in God's name was that?"

 

Thomas chuckled quietly and rubs the back of his neck. He feels a present come up next to him and sees Newt look at him questioningly.

 

Chuck laughs again. "Thomas is my brother!" Thomas could have laughed at how different but similar Jeff and Newt's expressions were at that moment.

 

Newt's cute eyebrow scrunch face was going in full power, eyes wide, while Jeff's one eyebrow was raised high while the other went low. It was the sassiest expression Thomas had ever seen; and it wasn't even on Minho.

 

Newt's hand on Thomas's shoulder pulled him back out of his thoughts. Thomas looked at Newt and the werewolf's eyes immediately calmed him down from the high of seeing his brother again. The dark honey brown killing him yet also making him so awake. Thomas thought he could make a home in those eyes.

 

"Is this true, Tommy?" Newt's eyes looked astonished. Thomas wondered at how Newt could show so many emotions through his eyes in just one look; he wondered at how he could understand those emotions.

 

Thomas smiled and looked at Chuck - who was smirking, the little devil - and nodded, looking back to Newt. Newt's jaw dropped a little bit in surprise, and Thomas was reminded back to yesterday.

 

"You better close your mouth, Newt, or you'll catch flies," Thomas retorts to Newt, reminding the both back to the day before, when their positions had been switched. Newt gasped and smacked him on the back of the head, muttering affectionately, "Bloody hell, only you, Tommy..."

 

Thomas smiled to himself and rubs the back of his head.

 

"So... how the hell did this happen?" Newt says, turning the conversation back to the point. Thomas shrugs.

 

"Vampires don't remember much from before they were turned. Only the really important things," Thomas explains. Chuck looks a little lost when he hears this but doesn't say anything.

 

Chuck clears his throat. "Well one night the house caught on fire, and dad and I knew that you all would've survived. You guys are too smart. So we were just wandering the woods - we lived on a lake surrounded by the woods - until one night we were attacked by other werewolves. Jorge saved us," Chuck finishes, and Thomas wants to wrap his baby brother up in his arms again at the mention that he was attacked.

 

Newt pats Chuck's shoulder affectionately, and Thomas wonders how close the two are.

 

"Anyways," Chuck sighs, rolling his eyes and shaking his hands off. "Dad still doesn't know your here. We better get going."

 

—

 

Apparently Thomas's dad is the one who gets them supplies and weapons. Chuck said that when he is with the pack, he is with Jorge, planning attacks on hunters to get more werewolves to joking their pack.

 

Thomas and Chuck had initially planned on going themselves, but then Newt had insisted on staying with Thomas. Thomas was about to say something but Chuck's eyes widened as if in realization and the three went right along to the homestead to find Jorge, and essentially, Vince.

 

Thomas is practically vibrating with excitement and nervousness; hell, he's about to see his dad for the first time in almost five decades! Who Thomas thought was dead - Thomas believes he has a pretty damn good excuse for being nervous!

 

Newt - who is walking next to Thomas - pats his shoulder. "Oi, you alright, Tommy?" Newt asks in a whispered voice.

 

Thomas gives Newt a stiff smile and nods, though Newt doesn't look like he believes the vampire. "I'll be fine Newt," Thomas whispers back to the boy, feeling like if he talks louder than a whisper, Thomas might break the bubble that seems is always surrounding Newt and Thomas.

 

Newt narrows his eyes at Thomas, raising an eyebrow carefully. Thomas gives and looks away. "Well- I guess I could be better."

 

Newt grunts at this and Thomas continues. "I mean, I'm about to see my dad again after years and years of thinking he's dead! Am I supposed to be alright?" Thomas still keeps his voice low, even knowing the other werewolves can hear them perfectly with werewolves having advanced hearing as well as vampires.

 

Newt smiles and shakes his head gently. "Of corse not, Tommy. You don't have to be anything," Newt moves his hand to the back of Thomas's neck, gently massaging it to calm Thomas down. It works perfectly, and Thomas takes a deep breath.

 

"I just don't like seeing people all worked up when everything's going to be fine," Newt continues. Thomas notices how he stresses 'everything's going to be fine' like he really wants this to go through to Thomas. Thomas sighs again, knowing Newt's right.

 

"I know, I know," Thomas whispers, and Newt purses his lips, satisfied.

 

Ahead of them, Chuck slows down so that Thomas and Newt catch up to him. Chuck smiles at Thomas and takes hold of his hand, wanting to be near his brother. Thomas finally relaxes, with Newt's hand on his back and Chuck's hand in his own. It'll all be fine.

 

The trio neared the end of Jorge's corridor and Harriet straightens by the doorway. She nods at the three.

 

"Newt, Thomas, Chuck," Harriet greets, her stance friendly but still in her work space. "What are you three doing down here?"

 

Chuck steps to the occasion. "We're looking for dad - is he in there?" Chuck asks, and Thomas tenses.

 

Harriet nods firmly gesturing with her spear she carries while she's guarding Jorge to the double doors. "He's right in there, I'm sure you three can't be up to too much trouble."

 

Chuck beams at her and fist bumps before turning around to Thomas. "Come on, hurry up!" He says before pushing through the doors.

 

When Newt starts to go forward Thomas hangs back, frozen in place. Newt turns back to the vampire when he notices Thomas is standing still in the muddle of the corridor.

 

"Tommy?" Newt asks, coming closer again, reaching up to Thomas's neck to do what had calmed him down before. Thomas shakes his head, suddenly feeling too sick to do this.

 

"I can't, Newt- I can't do this-!" Thomas begins to panic and he starts shaking. Newt pulls him closer and grasps his cheeks, making Thomas look in his eyes.

 

"Thomas, Thomas look at me," Newt says, and that catches Thomas's attention. Newt never called him Thomas, not even when they first met.

 

"Your gonna be fine, alright?" Newt begins, Thomas looking into Newt's deep brown eyes. "There isn't a thing that could go wrong in that room. He's your father - he loves you, and you love him. What's wrong with that? Hmm?" Newt continues and Thomas squeezes the hands on his face.

 

Thomas pulls Newt into a hug, being able to count on one hand how many times he's been this thankful for someone being there. Newt's warmth against Thomas is doing something to him, but Thomas can't seem to pull away.

 

"Wait, didn't Brenda not want you two to meet yet or something? You know she's gonna be pissed right?" Harriet interrupts.

 

Thomas blanches, embarrasses. He had forgot the girl was there in the first place. Newt laughs. "I think I can handle Brenda," the blond boy laughs.

 

"Come on now, Tommy," Newt says, guiding Thomas into the room and past Harriet and the double doors. "You'll be fine."

 

The first thing Thomas notices when he steps into the room is that Jorge looks like he really needs a coffee right about now. He looks as if he hasn't slept in days, and the bouncing with energy Chuck isn't doing his situation any benefit.

 

Then Thomas sees Chuck, bouncing all over the room, going on about something so fast he couldn't tell what the young boy was saying.

 

But then Thomas saw his dad. His hair was longer, it was the same blond color, but streaked with grey. His eyes seemed a bit fuller, the man in general seemed more worn out. But it was still his dad, sitting there in the rickety wooden chair Jorge had previously had piles of papers sitting on now on the floor, alive and well.

 

That was the moment Vince looked over to see the new visitors in the room. The absolute last thing he expected to see was his dead son. The man's jaw drops.

 

"...dad?" Thomas whispers, and Chuck stops talking, the room silent. If vampires were able to cry, Thomas's eyes would be filled with unshed tears.

 

The man stands up from the chair, his eyes never leaving Thomas. His son. He takes a slow step forward.

 

"Dad it's me," Thomas starts quietly, his voice shaking. "It's Thomas." He chokes on his own name, his voice giving out and cracking.

 

Vince steps closer until he is right in front of his son. He looks at his face, and it's unbelievingly the exact same. He hasn't changed at all. This can't be real.

 

But when Vince reaches forward and sees the small, almost imperceptible, scar cutting through the very top of his right eyebrow, he knows that this is his son.

 

Vince reaches forward and pulls Thomas into a clumsy hug, embracing him tightly, like Thomas would disappear if he let up just a little bit.

 

"Dad!" Thomas cries into Vince's shoulder, his voice muffled by the fabric of his jacket. He wraps his arms around his dad - his father was alive and here - and Thomas knows that he's not going to let go for a very long time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers! Thank you so much for reading my work, really, I cannot stress this more! I am so sorry for this super long chapter but I had to get it all in with the reunions and things! I'm sorry! 
> 
> I know that you may have some questions about plot holes and things here and there but I'm leaving those empty right now because they are either going to answered in this story, in one of the three prequels I'm currently writing, or the sequel I am also currently writing. So don't worry, but feel free to ask just in case!
> 
> Also, fun fact one; the little stories at the beginning are what Thomas is dreaming each night and if there isn't one you can't probably just assume he didn't have any dreams that night or doesn't remember them and they are also his memories - so, flashbacks of sorts. But each of them goes further back in the Bitten timeline and is important to the current events of the story in that certain chapter or maybe the next. So don't skip over them!
> 
> Fun fact number two; it took about 48 years from when Thomas was changed into a vampire to right now in the story. That's why Thomas says 'decades' in the story if you were wondering. Chuck is also still quite young because werewolves age about six times slower than human so while in human year's he would be pretty old, he is still younger than Thomas (who was 25 when he was changed into a vampire). 
> 
> Once again thank you so much for reading! I love feedback too so feel free to speak your mind, love ya! ;D


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